Always On the Other Side
by Purple Shamrock 17
Summary: COMPLETE! First Keith fic and multi chaptered! A different look at the movie from Keith's perspective. Includes his two week absence and his inner feelings about his life.
1. Prolouge

**Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Well, I'm entirely new to this category but I just finished watching the movie on YouTube and I thought it was absolutely amazing. It's so different from a lot of other teen romance movies. And yeah, the whole cancer thing has been down before but they twisted it so well and I never saw it coming! Poor Keith!**

**So, anyway, since I fell in love with the movie, I knew I needed to write some fanfiction for it and after reading all of the stories, I decided to write one entirely from Keith's POV. Now this won't be the entire movie rewritten from his perspective but there will be some similar scenes. The first few chapters will be pretty short I think. But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless and please review!**

Always On the Other Side

Prologue

A single cricket chirped far off in the distance, yet it was the only sound that that the teenage boy heard as he sat on the bank of small lake. He stared unseeingly at the opposite bank where for once, the bright orange blaze of a bonfire could not be seen.

All was shrouded in darkness and peace.

As if time had stopped and the world was frozen on its axis.

Keith Zetterstrom sighed heavily and buried his face in his knees which were drawn up to his chin. He could feel that something was going to happen. Something soon. And no, it wasn't his impending premature death; it was something in the present.

Or maybe it already had happened.

Natalie had figured out his secret, he was sure of it. She wasn't stupid, after all. She was bound to be curious about why he had been mysteriously absent from school for two weeks and why he had a bottle of antidepressants in his jacket pocket. The flipping things didn't work anyway, he thought bitterly. He wasn't depressed. He was coping. He was _living_ as best as he could. But he sure as hell wasn't depressed. He had his truck, his dad, Al, Billy…and Natalie.

Natalie. God, why hadn't he told her himself? She would be so mad at him. But that was how he wanted it. He didn't want sympathy or pity or any of that crap when people found out you had cancer. He just wanted to be…normal.

But he could never be normal. He had never been normal, even before his diagnosis. He had always been something of an outside…a _freak_. He had always been someone who lived….on the other side of everyone else.

**Author's Note: Well, what do you think? Please review!**


	2. Session

**Author's Note: Here's the first official chapter! Sorry this took so long! I got really busy and just forgot to upload it. It's short again but I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 1

Session

"So, Keith, how are you doing today?" Alan Archer asked as he situated himself into his armchair. He made a few notes on his clipboard and then looked up at his young patient who was staring out of his large office window at the town below.

"Oh, I don't know, Al, I'd say I'm doing pretty well, all things considered," he replied in his typical nonchalant manner. "But you're the therapist, what do you think?"

"Well, you certainly aren't showing any signs of depression as are common with your case," Al remarked. "The pills are helping, then?"

Keith shrugged. "Sure, I guess so. I haven't really noticed."

"What do you mean?"

"I meant exactly what I said I meant, Al. It's really simple. I've been taking the pills because I'm told to like a good little boy. Are they helping? Sure. I mean, I don't want to kill myself or anything. That would just be stupid considering I already have my first class ticket outta here anyway." He paused and then asked. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it does," said Al, making another note on his clipboard. "And how is treatment going?"

"Now there's the kicker," said Keith, turning around and throwing himself onto the small couch across from his counselor. "Kid finds out he has cancer and what do they do? Pump a shit load of chemicals into him, of course. Because, it's the first thing they do and it's always guaranteed to work. Well, guess what? Apparently, I got the short end of that idea because the treatment that_ always_ works, isn't working on me." He flashed a boyish grin at Al and then added, "Like I said, first class ticket all the way."

Al asked a few more questions which Keith answered in his own roundabout way. After half an hour, Al said. "I think that's all for today, Keith. I'll see you next week?"

"Sure, sure," the teenager nodded as he shrugged on his brown jacket. "Just can we do something different next time?"

"Like what?"

"Like, I dunno, somethin' other than just me answering questions all day. It's really boring, you know. This whole scenario is like something out of a movie. A really _clichéd_ movie at that. You get what I'm saying?"

"I think so."

"Good, good. I'll see you next week then, Al. Great job today by the way." He grinned as he clapped him on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Keith."

"Don't mention it. See ya."

"Goodbye."

* * *

When they met the next week, the first thing out of Keith's mouth was. "I thought we were doing something different this time, Al?"

"I'm not going to ask you as many questions this time, if that's helps," Al replied. "I assume that by 'something different' you meant go someplace other than my office?"

Keith grinned. "Exactly. Wow, you really hit the nail on the head. Great job."

"Thank you. Now, we won't be going anyplace for awhile yet. But eventually, we will. I just have to figure out a few things first."

Keith sighed in exasperation. "Okay, Al. Whatever. You're the boss after all." He sat down on the couch and looked over at the older man, waiting expectantly and thinking to himself. _What the hell is there to figure out? I'm dying of flipping cancer!"_

**Author's Note: I don't remember if Al's last name was mentioned in the movie and on the credits it says something that looks like Archer, I couldn't really tell cuz it was kind of blurry. Please review, I really do appreciate them since this category is entirely new for me!**


	3. Ideas

**Author's Note: Here's chapter2! This is where you'll find a few interesting things about Keith and it's a pretty deep chapter, at least I think so. I hope you like it and please review!**

Chapter 2

Ideas

Keith's next two sessions with Al were very unconventional one which was exactly what he wanted. He liked unconventional things; it made life much more interesting and not as mediocre. It appeared that Al had changed his mind about 'a few things' because he called Keith during the week after their last session and told him to meet him of all places, at the community center.

When Keith arrived, he found Al waiting for him and ignoring his question about what they were doing there, he led Keith into a separate room that contained nothing but pool tables.

"Ever played pool before, Keith?" Al asked as he handed him a long wooden cue stick.

"No, but my dad used to play. I never really got into it," he replied.

"Well, I've decided that instead of me asking you questions for half an hour in my office, I'm going to teach you how to play pool."

"And how does learning pool fit into the grand scheme that is my pitiful existence?" Keith inquired as he hefted the cue stick in his hand.

"It's a goal, Keith," said Al. "A goal for the present, not the future. A concrete goal, one that you can easily and effectively achieve. That's what I want you to be thinking about after today. Some sort of concrete goal that can keep you occupied and give you some sense of meaning to the rest of your life, however long or short it may turn out to be."

"What about working on my truck?"

"No, I want it to be something outside of what you're used to. Get you to experience something new and different."

Keith nodded slowly. "Okay, Al, I accept your challenge."

"Good," said his counselor. He leaned forward and pulled off the triangular orange rack that held the balls in place. "We'll meet again in two weeks. That should give you plenty of time to think of something." He paused and then flashed a small smile at Keith. "Now, let's play some pool."

* * *

A half an hour later, Keith was driving home in his old yellow truck. The truck was his pride and joy and he had been fixing it up for a long time. He took the long way home, giving him some time to think about Al's challenge. Driving was really the only place where he was able to clear his head and focus hard on one thing.

It was too bad that he hadn't been old enough to drive when his mom had died. He had been fourteen years old then. He could've used his truck to get away from his grieving relatives and the presence of his mother that lingered over everything…even now. Back then, he didn't want to believe it. That something so terrible like cancer could affect his family. Cancer was for someone else's family and not his. They had been happy, just the three of them. They had never done anything wrong for his mom to deserve to get it.

And neither had he.

He had cancer, like his mom. And sooner or later, he was going to die like his mother and his dad would be all alone.

Just like he was right now.

Keith turned a sharp right and swerved onto the side of the road. Once he had put his truck in park, he viciously wiped his eyes with the back of his hand where the tears had begun to form. He wouldn't cry. Crying was for people who were giving up. For people who couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel. Well, he sure as hell wasn't giving up, not yet anyway. And he could see a light, albeit a faint one and it was in Al's concrete goal.

But he was alone, in every sense of the word. He'd never really had any friends and he had always been something of an outsider. He seemed to transmit 'weirdo' and 'freak' signals to everyone around him. He hadn't really cared though; he had his dad and his truck. He hadn't really cared until now.

He supposed that he had never really found anyone that he could relate too. No one he knew had lost their mothers to cancer at such a young age and there was definitely no one who could relate now, when he had it. No, it was like Al and his doctor had said, it was best to live his life as normally as he could and for however long he could.

And the first step of being normal meant having friends.

No, not friends._ A_ friend and it would be a girl because girls were always on the 'inside' of everything and they were usually intrigued by outsiders like him.

Keith smiled to himself. Yes, he would find the perfect girl to be his friend. He wasn't actually sure what all of that entailed but now that he at least had an idea, he could figure it out as he went along.

He shifted his truck into drive and with his boyish grin still on his face, drove the rest of the way home.

**Author's Note: In the movie, they never really said how Keith's mom died, so I thought it would be a neat connection (and a horrible to twist of fate) to have her die from cancer like her son. Hope that was long enough for you all and please review!**


	4. The Search

**Author's Note: Hello, thank you for all of the supportive reviews! Here is chapter 3. Again, it's kinda short and I hope you all don't mind too much. But like I said, they will get longer once Keith and Natalie actually meet. Hope you enjoy despite the shortness and please review!**

Chapter 3

The Search

When Keith got home ten minutes later, the first thing he did was he walked into his room and pulled last school year's yearbook from his bookshelf. He figured that it was the best place to start his search for the perfect girl. She had to be perfect and she had to be in his class.

He flipped through his class's pages, glancing at each of the girls that he saw. A lot of them were pretty but they didn't really stick out to him. They were that fake sort of pretty, the kind that was mostly comprised of too much makeup and tanning. Keith hated those types of girls and when he reached the end of his class, he scowled at his own black and white photo and had found no one. He turned the page and was about to close the book in defeat when he saw that something had been stuck in the crease of the page. He picked it up. It was heavy like cheap poster board, but when he turned it over; he realized that it was a picture.

It had that slightly grainy look that cameras sometimes had before the era of all things digital. It was a picture of one of his elementary school plays. He couldn't for the life of him remember what it was called but as he found his younger self standing in the back row, he recalled that he had been a Russian soldier in this particular production. He had very proud of the role too.

Keith swept his gaze over the rest of the photo when his eyes locked on the little blonde girl standing in almost the exact center of the group. She wasn't hard to miss as she was wearing a white dress and the spotlight was mainly on her while he was left in the shadows.

Keith smiled. This, he knew would be his girl. The only problem was that he had no idea who she was.

But this was easily solved. Tucking the picture back into his yearbook and closing it, he bounded over to his closet and hauled out a plastic bin full of old elementary school mementos. Before she had died, his mom had wanted to make a scrapbook of his elementary, middle and high school years and so the bin was where she had stored all of his elementary school pictures, report cards, drawings…and programs.

He tipped over the neatly filed bin and began shifting through all the papers until he found the orange program. Ignoring the title, he flipped it open and scanned the cast list.

And then he found her.

The Princess…….Natalie Anderson

* * *

"Hey, Dad?" Keith asked that evening during dinner.

"Yeah, Keith?"

"Do you know anything about Natalie Anderson?...She was the princess in that play in elementary school," he added, trying to help jog his dad's memory.

"Oh, yeah, I remember her," Henry Zetterstrom said with a nod. "Yeah, you two have been classmates all through school. She's a really good tennis player now."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's one of the top players in the state, I think," Henry continued. "She's bound to get a full ride somewhere with such a high rank and she's on high honor roll too." He paused and looked at his son curiously. "Why all the questions, Keith? Do you have a crush on her?" he asked with a slight smile.

Keith snorted in disgust. "No, Dad, I've never even met her in my life! I just found a picture of the play in my yearbook and wondered about her. Besides, why would someone like her even want to date me, anyway?"

"Maybe because you're a nice guy and you aren't the typical jock."

Keith smirked and rolled his eyes. "Dad, you gotta understand that princesses never _ever_ notice the little people."

* * *

An hour later, Keith was sitting on the bank of the lake, watching the party that was taking place at the Brick. The Brick was where all of the socialites of high school hung out and the glow of a bonfire was a common sight for him. He had no idea why it was called the Brick, only that had been for as long as he could remember.

Keith could never go to the Brick, even if he wanted to. People would stare. He knew that everyone thought he was a freak and a weird kid who was obsessed with his truck. But did he care? Not in the slightest.

He had started coming to the lake after his mom's death. It helped him to forget and to think about other things. It helped him relax and just…breathe. It was his 'spot' to come to whenever he needed to get away from everything. He'd spent a lot of time at the lake during the year or so after his mom's death. He had felt that since he was alone, she would be able to find him more easily and he felt closer to her, here at the lake more than he did anywhere else.

He wasn't sure if Natalie was there now, across the lake. From what his dad had him about her, it seemed as if she was still a princess in a way. And he was still a little person, half hidden in the shadows.

Now the only thing he had to do was get her to notice him.

**Author's Note: Ohhh, sort of a cliffy, isn't it? I will update when I can! Please review!**


	5. Watching and Walter

**Author's Note: Hello, fellow Keith fans! Sorry such a long time between updates. I was trying to update another fanfic of mine (whose chapter I still haven't finished) and I wasn't really sure of all that I wanted to put in this chapter. But now that I've finished, I hope it's okay and please review! Thank you again for all of the support!**

Chapter 4

Watching and Walter

For the next few days, both at home and at school, Keith watched Natalie Anderson. To someone else, it might've looked as if he were stalking her because he found out anything and everything that he could about her. But Keith assured himself that he wasn't stalking her, stalkers wanted to hurt or 'take advantage' of the people they followed and were usually psychopaths anyway. Keith was merely observing her and he didn't want to hurt her…at least not yet.

With her most recent yearbook picture firmly implanted in his mind, Keith spent the next day at school looking for her. She was pretty easy to find: tall, blonde, pretty and always running from one class to the next. He could see it in her eyes that she was clearly focused on her classes and nothing else. She was so consumed by her day to day life that he knew that given any normal day, she wouldn't even stop to glance at him.

His research on her had been pretty typical considering all that she was. But he had found some things that were very surprising. Not only was Natalie ranked as one of the top tennis players in the state, she was also in the top percentile of their class and was either the head of or in nearly every academic club their high school offered. Keith didn't know how it was possible. To be in so many clubs, keep up one's grades _and_ be a great tennis player. The girl was nuts!

One thing was for certain, Natalie Anderson needed a reality check and he was just the person to give it to her.

* * *

Now that Keith knew what she looked like and knew what her life was like. The next obstacle that he had to overcome was how he was going to meet her or even better, to _make _her meet him. He knew that if he just went up to and introduced himself that she would write him on as 'creepy' and 'weird'. The best way, he thought was to make sure that he was in one of her classes.

Naturally, student information such as schedules was kept confidential so he couldn't be sure what classes she was in. But one day at school, he hit a stroke of luck when he saw posted in the front office, a list of where all of the senior athletes were thinking about or planning on going to college. Natalie was on the list and it said that she was planning on going to Duke University. After a quick Google search, Keith found that Duke accepted many AP high school classes as college credit, so now the only thing left to do was to an AP class and hope that Natalie Anderson was in it.

It was still early enough in the semester that he could switch classes if he wanted to and when he looked over the list of available AP courses, he decided on Chemistry. With all of his visits to the hospital for chemo, he was practically a self made chemist and with Natalie (hopefully) in the class, it shouldn't be too difficult.

"Tell me again why you want to switch to an AP class?" his guidance counselor asked that afternoon when Keith brought her his slip for a schedule change.

"I just feel that I'm ready for a challenge after taking so many slacker classes," he replied smoothly. "Besides it looks good an application, right?"

"I thought you weren't applying to college, Keith," said his counselor, looking confused.

"I'm not, that was only hypothetical but I still wanna take the class." When she still looked unsure, he leaned a little and said quietly. "C'mon, what've I got to lose? Nothin'. Nothin' at all and besides, you know I've got the brains for it."

He stared at her for a moment or two and the she gave in. Keith smiled in triumph as he sat back in his chair while she made the schedule changes.

"Alright, Keith, you'll be in Mr. Miles' class," She said as she handed him his new schedule. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into it."

"Don't worry," Keith smirked as he glanced at the paper. "I know_ exactly_ what I'm doing."

* * *

The next day before first period started, Keith sauntered into Mr. Miles' classroom. The Chemistry teacher was pulling test tubes and beakers out of a cabinet and putting them on his desk, preparing for an upcoming lab.

"Good morning, Walter," said Keith politely.

The older man looked up in surprise. "Oh, good morning. You must be Keith."

"Yes, I am."

"Wonderful, I am pleased to have such a bright student in my class," he said with a smile. "Oh, and I have been informed as to your…condition."

"I guess you would have," said Keith with a shrug. "It's not a thing that every teacher has to deal with. You gotta be prepared when they slap you with the sick kid."

"Or every student," said Walter. "By the way, how did you know my first name?"

"Last year's yearbook. I'm not one for formalities. Is it alright if I call you by your first name?"

"Sure, sure, but I'll have some trouble getting used to it," Walter smiled and then asked, "Did you just drop by to introduce yourself or is there something else I can help you with?"

"Actually yes," said Keith. "Can I request a lab partner?"

"Well, I usually randomly assign lab partners but your case, I'll allow an acceptation. Who did you have in mind?"

Keith smiled. His plan could not be working out more beautifully. He was still smiling when he answered confidently.

"Natalie Anderson."

**Author's Note: I know, I know, horrible cliffy. I will do my best to update more quickly next time. In the meantime, please review!**


	6. Natalie and Change

**Author's Note: Well, here is the chapter that you all have been waiting for! The one where Keith finally meets Natalie! Much of this is quoted directly from the movie so I hope it's not too boring. I'm actually surprised that I got a lot of it as accurate as I did. Hope you enjoy it and please review!**

Chapter 5

Natalie and Change

Today was the day. The big one. The one he had been waiting for. Today was the day when he would finally get to meet Natalie Anderson.

Keith smiled at himself as he stared at his reflection in the morning before school. He knew he didn't need to act a certain way, he just needed to be his usual laid back self and that would be more than enough to begin easing her out of her comfort zone.

Of course that wasn't the _only_ thing he had planned.

Keith was brimming with confidence when he parked his truck in the student parking lot and strolled up to the doors. Once inside, he kept his glowing demeanor as he walked to his locker and gathered his things for class. And he managed to keep up his attitude until the middle of the day when it was time for Chemistry.

He purposefully hid in the boys' bathroom until it was near the end of the passing period before Chemistry. This was part of the first phase of his plan. He would arrive late to class and startle her from the get go. He couldn't help but smile at his cleverness.

When he felt it was time, he slipped out into the hall and stood outside the classroom, listening through the partially opened door as Walter took roll and gave instructions about the 'States of Attraction' lab that they would be conducting. After Walter assigned the lab partners, Keith waited another moment or two before he entered the room.

Natalie was sitting at the third lab station next to the windows. Her back was to him as she was busily gathering the various beakers and test tubes they would need for the lab. Keith nodded to Walter before he calmly slipped onto the stool beside her. He turned to face and found that her back was still turned, so he put on his most charming smile and waited.

Natalie turned around so fast that she would've bumped into him, had she not jumped at seeing him. She recovered quickly, he noticed and set the beaker and flask that she was holding on the table.

"Zetterstrom?" she asked.

"Haven't lied to this far and I'm not gonna start now," Keith replied.

She looked at him strangely and then quickly turned back to her notes. Keith could tell that she was thinking_, Okay, whatever_ and he smirked. He watched her read the lab instructions, making no attempt to read what they said. He watched her and only her.

Finally, she seemed to realize that he was watching her and glanced at him. "You wanna help?"

Keith nodded and scooped up the matchbox from the middle of the table, opened it, selected a match and struck across the box. He watched the tiny flame for a moment and was about to light the Bunsen burner (what else was it there for?) when Natalie leaned over and blew it out.

"We don't need that for this," she told him, somewhat exasperatedly.

"Look, you're not going to be disagreeable, are you?" he asked in a business like way. "Because Walt specifically promised me an agreeable lab partner."

"Walt?" she asked, sounding worried.

"You need to relax," he said as gently as he could.

"Actually I need to learn this."

"Because why?" he inquired, playing the ignorance card.

"Because you need to a four on your AP exam if you want to get a college credit, in case you didn't know," she replied as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Okay," she continued, turning back to the lab. "So we need to fill this nitrate sulfate and this with sodium carbonate." She pointed to the various beakers.

"Gotta keep up that GPA," said Keith somewhat sarcastically.

"It's kinda helpful if you ever want to get a job," said Natalie, keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the instructions.

"A job? Well, then you'll be ahead of the game."

"Can you just do the lab?" she asked clearly getting annoyed.

"I'd love to!" Keith cried enthusiastically. "Let's do the lab!" he grabbed his goggles, put them on and then lit another match and held to the Bunsen burner. "You know with all your talk about getting a job, we're about ten years into the future," he remarked. "We don't need Chemistry…we need time travel." He added in a slight whisper.

They ended up doing the lab in complete silence after that. He had obviously annoyed Natalie Anderson to the point where she refused to speak to him during the rest of the class. Keith didn't mind. He had said all that he needed to say and had certainly achieved his goal of jolting her out of her comfort zone. He spent much of the remainder of the class, pondering his last comment to her about time travel. It seemed that with Natalie's remarks about GPA and college, she was living in the future and needed to travel back to the present where he was. More importantly, she needed to live in the moment and enjoy life, just as he was trying to do.

When class was over, they cleaned up the lab in silence and while Keith stowed the equipment in their lab station drawers, he happened to see Natalie walk up to Walter's desk. She was obviously complaining about how incompetent and annoying he was, but he couldn't hear what she was saying so he didn't hear. But her words didn't matter, he had his own plan of attack in mind.

As soon as Natalie had left the classroom after talking to Walter, Keith strode up to the teacher's desk and said loudly enough for her to hear. "About this Natalie Anderson…"

"Keith. What---?"

"Walter, she's a complete, anal compulsive control freak. How the hell do you expect me to deal with that?"

"Keith, you chose---."

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Keith assured him. "We're protégé." He added in a loud whisper before he too, left the classroom to Walter's shocked face. Outside in the hall, he turned to the right only to be blocked by Natalie Anderson.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" she demanded.

"Who do you think I am?" Keith asked calmly. He smirked at her surprised expression and walked around her without another word as he continued onward to his next class.

* * *

Keith did not have any more classes with Natalie and only saw her a few times during the various passing periods. When school was over for the day, he made it out to the parking lot early to watch her leave as well as to meet a kid who sold him an old fender for his truck. He had to wait a few minutes for both of them and his fender arrived first. As he was loading it into the back of his truck, he happened to turn around and see Natalie talking to another boy and pointing at him. He smiled at her and pointed back as a way of greeting. Then, still smiling he got into his truck, started it and began to drive away.

As he drove however, his smile slowly slipped away from his face.

The boy that Natalie had been talking to was Rafael Marques. He was a new student from some South American country. From what Keith had heard he was very smart as well as a great athlete and had movie star looks.

Just like Natalie.

Keith clenched his fists on the steering wheel as he drove on. _She'll probably start dating him_, he thought bitterly. And they'll just be the perfect high school couple who have everything going for them.

Why the hell did some people have absolutely perfect lives while other people got absolute shit?

Because that was what Natalie Anderson's life was: perfect. It was absolutely perfect. It was _so_ damn prefect that it made him sick. Sicker than he already was. It made him want to change her life drastically so that she would that not everyone was like her, make her see outside of the box.

Keith knew now that his concrete goal was not so simple as it had been before. It was much deeper than making a friend. It was about changing someone's life completely. It was about bringing them down to his level and making them see what a messed up life he had, a life that he did not deserve.

When he pulled his driveway, his goal had evolved completely. Now he knew that he had to crush Natalie Anderson's perfect little world and show her his reality, _his_ life and _his_ simple, live-in-the-moment goals.

Keith smiled to himself with his new goal firmly fixed in his mind. The next few days and weeks were going to get pretty interesting for the both of them.

**Author's Note: Well what do you think? Please let me know in your reviews! The next scene is going to be the hilarious picnic scene and I might even include the midnight bowling scene. Thanks for reading and please review!**


	7. The Picnic

**Author's Note: Wow….that was the longest time that I've taken between updates. For that I'm really sorry. I don't really know what happened. I guess I just wasn't sure what to include and not to include. So I'm sorry for the lack of speedy updating. But here is a nice long chapter 6 (the longest for this story yet) and I hope you enjoy and please review!**

Chapter 6

The Picnic

The next day during Chemistry, Keith mentioned the picture of the two of them in the elementary school play. Natalie, being who she was did not remember it. From there, they moved on to college and why she had chosen Duke. He kept drilling her with questions and snide comments about sport scholarships, hoping to steer away from her asking too many questions about him but eventually, Natalie became curious.

"Where did you apply to college?" she asked.

"Nowhere," Keith replied smoothly.

"You're not going to college?"

"Not in the Judeo Christian sense. No, I am not."

"So, what are you doing after graduation?"

"The sky's the limit," he said mysteriously.

Class went much more smoothly after that and Keith could tell that she was curious about his strange ways and demeanor and that pleased him. After school, he made it out to his truck early again and watched her while she talked to Raff…and set up a time to meet at the Brick that very night.

The wheels began to turn in Keith's head.

* * *

He drove to his spot at the lake that night, armed with a pair of binoculars. Usually when he watched the partying over on the opposite bank, he didn't care who was there only that they were there and he was here, on the other side. And he could never go over there.

But now things were different. He had Natalie to spy on. He knew he wouldn't spy on her every time she visited the Brick, it would just be this night. Just to see how she acted around Raff.

Smiling mischievously to himself, Keith raised the binoculars to his eyes and stared across the lake.

He found both of them easily enough, but the funny thing was was that they did not automatically gravitate toward each other as he expected them to. He was sure that one was attracted to the other and that they would naturally find each other since they planned to meet at the Brick. But Natalie stayed talking to her friends close to the bonfire while Raff stayed along the tree line, talking to his friends but every once and awhile he would glance at Natalie as if he was waiting for the right moment to approach her.

Keith continued to watch with great curiosity at this strange lack of interaction. He spent much of his time moving from one to the other, waiting for something to happen.

He didn't have to wait long. The rhythmic pulsing of the music suddenly stopped and he saw two boys gather around it and bend down to examine it. That was when Raff strolled into the view of his binoculars and although he couldn't make out what was said, it appeared that Raff had brought his own music along as the sounds of Spanish dance music filled the air. Keith pressed the binoculars closer to his eyes when he saw Natalie jump up and begin to suggestively with Raff to sultry rhythm.

Keith snorted in disgust. That wasn't _dancing_. That was looking like idiot and moving your hips and trying to be sexy. The whole new dance was utterly repulsive to Keith and he scowled as Natalie continued to dance with the pretty foreign boy.

Eventually, the 'dancing' stopped and Natalie and Raff sat down by the shore away from the bonfire. Again, Keith couldn't hear them and was too far away to read their lips, but Keith could deduce from their body language that they were talking about something serious. He wondered about what they could be talking about (he guessed that it probably had something to do with academics) when his eyes snapped into focus and he saw Raff lean in to kiss her.

And so they kissed. And Keith saw that, though it was unexpected, it was fast and heated and that Natalie was enjoying it and relishing it.

And loving it.

Keith's grip on the binoculars tightened angrily without him knowing exactly why. But he could only bear to see them kiss for so long before he tore his eyes away and stood up with his back to the kissing couple. That _perfect _couple who had everything going for them and more. Those two who only thought about their lives a few months from now when they would graduate, all happy and full of life.

Keith's hands balled into fists as he stormed back to the road where he had parked his truck. Once there, he flung open the door, threw the binoculars onto the passenger seat and slapped his door shut. Then, he held the steering wheel so tightly until his knuckles turned white. He didn't know why he was reacting this way. He knew he didn't want to kiss Natalie, he barely even knew her! Besides they weren't even really friends yet, just lab partners. Only lab partners.

Still fuming over what he didn't know, Keith pulled out onto the road and drove him, thinking about all that he had seen.

* * *

He didn't speak to Natalie at all during class that next day and he was glad that she didn't ask him about it. He spent the rest of the day like this and when school was over, he walked purposefully to his truck all his thoughts centered on going home and sulking.

Until…

"Keith!" a familiar voice called. "_Keith_!"

He didn't even bother to look behind him as he tossed his backpack through the open window, got in and slammed the door shut.

"Keith," Natalie cried, running up to his window. "The lab report is due tomorrow!"

"Ah, yes," he sighed. "But the real pressing question is, how is Rafael Marques, your boyfriend."

"He's not---"

"Great choice that Rafael!" he interrupted happily, all trace of his anger gone. "Perfect guy! Brainy stud! You can't go wrong!"

"You were at the Brick," Natalie stated, smiling to herself.

"No," Keith answered and he turned around started his truck. "But you were," he added, turning back to face her.

"If you weren't then how would you know?"

"Because that's where everyone goes," said Keith matter-of-factly. They both knew it was true anyway.

"What about the lab report?" Natalie asked quickly as he moved to drive off.

Keith was planning answering with a snide comment of some sort but then an idea occurred to him that could possibly make her (and him) forget about Rafael Marques.

"Hop in," he said, jerking his head in the direction of the passenger seat. "C'mon, c'mon," he coaxed when she hesitated. "I do my best work while I'm driving."

"I have your book."

Keith then turned around to face the front as if in defeat, only to shirt his truck into drive and as he began to drive slowly away, he explained to her the steps to setting up the lab until she ran up to him and jumped into the passenger seat.

And that was how he got the first ever girl to ride in his truck.

* * *

Granted it wasn't always how he had pictured, mainly because she kept the conversation strictly on finishing their lab report. So Keith was forced to explain all about moles and mole ratios, something for once that Natalie seemed to know little about and this brightened his mood considerably. He was even happy with the fact that she couldn't get the right answer.

"C'mon, you're being a jerk," she sighed, exasperated. "I need to be back at school in fifteen minutes.

"What's the rush?" he asked, truly curious. "We're in a yellow truck with a road in front of us and nothing but oppourtunities."

"Ohhkayy, what opportunities?"

"Choose a place," he told her. "C'mon, pick a place, anywhere at random."

"Okay, I choose…the third point on our lab report calculating the mole ratio."

He shook his head and thought, _Some fun you are_. To Natalie he said, "I can't concentrate in a straight line like this, this is not gonna work."

"Then turn!"

"Where?"

"I don't know….whoa!" she cried as he turned sharply into the parking lot of an office building.

As they walked up to the front door, Keith carried a brown paper bag which contained his uneaten lunch as he explained to the ignorant Natalie, "The mole ratio therefore is two to one, so now we need to find the potential oxidation numbers of tin and oxygen."

"Which are?" Natalie asked from behind him.

At that he turned around so quickly that she nearly ran into him like she had done when they first met. "It's time for a picnic scene," he said softly.

Then he turned and continued on up to the front door. Inside, Keith flashed a wide grin to the security guard at the front desk and said brightly, "There he is! How's it going?" His grin widened at the man's surprised look as he continued on to the elevators and called to Natalie whom he could sense was lagging behind. "Move along, dear!"

While they waited for the elevator, Natalie said. "The thing about picnics, they usually take place outside."

"Oh, really?" said Keith smartly. "Does it say that in the official picnic rulebook?" He smirked at her confused expression as the doors opened and they stepped inside.

In certain situations, Keith was a think-on-his-feet kind of person and this situation certainly applied so he knew that he had to make it seem as if they were supposed to be in the building, which was a car insurance firm.

"Do you think our check is ready yet?" he asked Natalie as two business men got into the elevator after them. When she gave him a strange look he continued. "I know, pumpkin love, I'm ticked about it too. Do you believe this shit? It's been three months since that accident!"

A bell dinged and the doors opened and when Keith got out after the business men, he purposefully walked with a limp so that no one would notice them as much. He had observed over time that people turned a blind eye to others with physical abnormalities (like the shaved head on a perfectly normal looking boy) as much as they stared.

"Bone graphs are really starting to kick in now," he muttered loud enough for Natalie to hear as they walked through the room. When they reached a door with a frosted window, Natalie whispered. "Take me back to school now!"

"Oh, yeah," said Keith. "Let's go back to the library and finish lab report in a safe, _acceptable_ way like everybody else." He smirked again as he opened the door and being the gentleman that he was, allowed her to enter first.

Inside was a small conference room and Keith automatically flung himself into one of the swivel chairs and propped his feet up on the table, as if he belonged there. As he unpacked his simple lunch (Twinkies and beef jerky) he glanced over at Natalie as she sat down next to him and turned her full attention to finishing the lab report. They sat in silence for awhile after that. Natalie worked on the report while Keith worked his way through the first piece of jerky dipped in Twinkie cream. Wanting to start some sort of conversation as he was unable to stand the silence, Keith offered a freshly dipped jerky. Natalie looked up, saw the food and her face contorted into one of disgust and she told him so. "That's disgusting."

Keith shrugged and bit into the jerky. Silence filled the room again until Natalie said softly. "My dad used to work in a place like this."

He looked at her, surprised. "Really? An accountant?...A salesman?...A Norwegian fisherman?"

Natalie smiled and shook her head. "District manager for a phone company…You're not very good at reading minds."

"Well, that's 'cause I wasn't really trying," said Keith. Then an idea struck him and he rolled his chair closer to her, put his hand on top of her head and closed his eyes. "He manages stacks of paper," he began in a slight whisper. "Moving them from side to side, every day, he hates his job. When he was your age he dreamed of going to Duke but they rejected him. So he poured over every detail of your application, night after night until you finally got it right. Natalie Anderson, the star of the household, who loves being the center of attention. She just wished it didn't mean having to play tennis every day." He paused and then asked, "How am I doing?" he opened his eyes and saw the look of bewilderment on her face and he knew he had been correct on every detail. Most of it had come from observation and his research on her. After all, the only reason that he could see as to why she was so intent on applying (and then going to) one particular college was to live to what her parents had dreamed of. And he had seen her looks sometimes during school whenever anyone mentioned tennis, she had just looked so _tired_ and pressured by everything.

And apparently from her expression, his 'mind reading' had been spot on.

Unfortunately the bittersweet moment was spoiled when a woman poked her head in and asked what they were doing there. Natalie made up some lie about how they were waiting for a business man to return and she went away, looking suspiciously at them. Once she was gone, Keith said softly. "Goddamn that Richardson."

"Yeah," Natalie grinned mischievously. "Who does he think he is? That little monkey!"

"I'm sick of this shit!" Keith cried, leaping to his feet. "We're goin' straight to the top, baby. We're gettin' his little monkey ass FIRED!"

And Natalie giggled at his outburst as he sat back down.

Shortly thereafter, they were escorted from the building by two security guards, no doubt because of Keith's yelling and the simple fact that they weren't really supposed to be there anyway.

* * *

As he drove Natalie back to school for one club or another, she tried his 'mind reading' trick on him and tried to guess everything about his family.

"So how am I doing?" she asked excitedly when she had finished.

"Actually," he said. "I have two brothers, three sisters. My dad works in real estate, mom helps him out and we live in a farmhouse. A _big_ farmhouse," he emphasized.

"Where?"

"Beaver Creek, off the Route ten."

"The big white one? Oh, wow, I love that house!"

"Yep, that's where I live," said Keith with a smile.

Once he had dropped her off at school, Keith drove home and thought about the day's events. All in all, it had been a very enlightening and pleasurable day. He felt that their little "indoor" picnic had been a success and that Natalie's wall of academic perfection was beginning to crack.

And she had_ giggled_ at him.

She had seemed _happy_ to be around him.

At his sudden outburst at the fictional businessman, she hadn't given him a strange look like he was a freak or being immature, she had giggled at him as if it was part of some secret joke.

Keith smiled as he drove. Yes, things were looking up now and his plan was going smoothly after that slight unexpected kiss that Natalie and Raff had shared at the Brick.

But Keith was so happy that he didn't even care.

**Author's Note: Well, what do you think? I know that in the movie, Keith obviously has hair and his head isn't shaved, but I figured that since he has cancer and has been through chemo he must've had his head shaved at least once. So now that that's cleared up, PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. Preperations

**Author's Note: Okay, I know I said that this chapter would be the 'bowling scene' but I forgot about all the stuff that happens before it so I decided to split it into two chapters, so the NEXT chapter will the bowling scene. In the meantime please enjoy the hilarity that is the 'spiky heels/punishment' scene and don't forget to review!**

Chapter 7

Preparations

By Chemistry the next day, Keith was still reveling in the previous day's 'picnic' and the new level of his relationship with Natalie that it had brought him. He wanted to keep the laid back nature of the day going even during their chem lab, but ten minutes into the lab, he found that it wasn't going to be easy.

Natalie could barely keep her eyes open. _She probably spent the night partying with Raff and all of her other friends from the Brick_, Keith thought bitterly. Yet he was determined to not let that fact spoil his mood. So keep his eyes firmly fixed on the dazed Natalie, he reached for the test tube full of carefully measured water and poured a little of it onto their lab table.

"Oh, God," Keith groaned at the sight of the spill.

As he predicted, Natalie perked up and followed his gaze to the tabletop. "Be more careful, would you?" she said, moving the test tube into the middle of the table.

"Am I gonna get in trouble for that?" Keith asked in mock seriousness. "Are you gonna be punish me for this?" He whispered, hunching his shoulders as if preparing for some harsh punishment.

"I may have to," said Natalie also in mock seriousness. Keith smirked mentally. She was catching on to his games.

" 'Cause you know how I feel about all of that stuff," he continued in a whisper.

"Look, partner, you know the deal."

"But…those spiky heels really hurt me," he breathed huskily.

"Keith," said Natalie firmly as she stroked his cheek with the tip of her pencil which sent a strange tingling sensation down his spine. "You've been a bad boy…and now you're gonna have to pay the price." She poked him gently with the pencil and Keith groaned softly as if finding some sort of sensual pleasure from her actions.

Both of them could feel the shocked stares of their tablemates on them and Natalie looked up and said loudly. "Do you mind?" The two staring girls quickly looked down at their notes while Keith and Natalie shared a small smile at their dramatics.

After class, Keith walked out with her into the hall and said, "So we're on five p.m.?"

"For what?"

"A bowling scene."

"Bowling? Are you serious? I'm going out."

"Tomorrow, then."

"Keith, I can't."

He stopped walking, sensing what he felt that she must think he was implying he clarified. "It's not a date."

"Keith, maybe some other time," she said as she began to increase her pace to get to her next class.

"Friday!" he called out, beginning to get desperate. She only smiled at him as she reached the stairs. "I'll just schedule it with your assistant then!" he added.

"Okay, you do that!"

And she turned away and walked down the steps.

* * *

After school that day, Keith spent a good half hour in his room, pacing. He had to figure out something to make her go bowling with him, especially since it wouldn't be the bowling that she was probably thinking of. Keith's version of bowling had not been part of his plan to change her, it had just popped into his head one day and now he decided to act on it.

And then an idea occurred to him. It was such a simple idea that he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before, but maybe part of it was because it was absolutely terrifying. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

He would call her.

* * *

He waited to call her until after dinner. Although he would never admit it to anyone, Keith was scared stiff at calling Natalie. Even though he knew exactly what he wanted to say, he was still nervous about it, mainly because he wasn't sure how she would react to him calling her. Would she hang up on him when he mentioned the bowling? Would she think that he was trying to subtly stalking her or something?

Keith knew he had to do it eventually and besides, it wasn't like she was some strange girl that he barely knew. It was _Natalie_ and he knew a hell of a lot about her.

Taking a deep breath, he snatched up the cordless phone and the thick yellow phonebook. Then, he collapsed onto the couch and began to call everyone named Anderson that was listed.

Finally, ten names later, he struck gold.

"Hello?" asked a man's voice.

"Hi, is Natalie there?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"Keith Zetterstrom…I'm her chem partner."

"Alright, hang on a sec."

"Thanks."

He waited anxiously for ten long seconds until Natalie's voice asked. "Hello?"

"It would not be a date," he said instantly.

"Who is this?" She asked, but he was certain that she knew exactly who he was.

"It's only bowling. C'mon, what are you so afraid of?" he asked.

"Keith….hi."

"Look, I'll pick you up at five p.m. after school," he said.

"Did you happen to do the homework?" she asked suddenly.

"Homework? What homework?" he asked, racking his brain trying to remember if they actually had homework.

"It's your turn to write up the notes," she told him. "You're screwin' with my grade here."

"Yeah and you're changing the subject!" he snapped exasperatedly.

"I told you, I have plans."

"Look, you'll be back by nine and there'll be plenty of time afterward for a date."

"I'll see you in school!" she called cheerfully, hinting that the conversation was over.

"Wh---" he faltered at her abrupt exit. "Maybe."

"With the lab notes," she added quickly but he hung up on her before she could finish. Placing the phone back on its dock, he sighed heavily and leaned back against the couch. She obviously thought he was nuts or stalking her or just trying to be cute and maybe even break her and Raff up. But really, it was just bowling, what was the big deal?

Or maybe…

Maybe she didn't want to be seen with a guy like him when she was dating a guy like Raff. It would probably look like she was cheating on Raff with him.

He just had to convince her that it was nothing like that.

* * *

An hour later, Keith was sitting at his desk in his room, rereading his recently completed list of reasons why Natalie should go bowling with him. It went something like this:

Reasons Why You Should Go Bowling

_a. It's not a date_

_b. You're my lab partner_

_c. Just to see_

_d. Bowling is the most popular sport in America and we don't to miss out_

_e. It is not and never will be, a date_

Smiling in satisfaction, Keith neatly folded the paper in half and slipped it into a front pocket of his backpack. Then, he switched off his light and climbed into bed.

* * *

Early the next morning at school, Keith found Natalie's locker and taped his note to it. He figured that this was only sure way that he could deliver it. Granted, he could always walk up and hand the note to her, but he wanted to be discreet about pushing her to go bowling. Then, at the end of Chemistry while Natalie was busy cleaning their supplies, Keith stole her notebook where she kept all of her days perfectly planned out. Finding a blank page, he quickly scribbled in green crayon:

_C, mon, you're my lab partner. It's not a date. Don't be a chicken._

And then he deftly slipped it back into her bag, smiling to himself.

Now that all of his subtle urging was done, all he had to do was wait for her after school.

After school, Keith sat in his truck watching Natalie and her friends…and Raff as they laid in a circle on one of the grassy areas. When she looked suddenly and saw him sitting there, he held a piece of paper that read: 5 p.m. She must have seen it because she turned to Raff and he could see her lips moving. Confident that she was telling him that she was telling him some made up story so she didn't have to tell him the truth, Keith backed out of the parking lot and drove away.

And he was right because an hour and a half later, Natalie was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck as they drove down the road.

"Do you really want to base a relationship with a great guy like Raff on lies and deceit?" he asked her as he drove. "You're spending a few hours with your _lab_ partner."

"What I do with Raff is none of your business," she replied smartly.

"My point exactly," said Keith.

"I thought we were going bowling," said Natalie as he turned into a thrift store parking lot.

"We're saving that," he answered cheerfully.

When they walked inside, he strode confidently over to where a small pile of bowling balls were sitting.

As he squatted down to examine them, Natalie said. "You know, believe it or not they do have bowling balls at the bowling alley."

"Not like these babies," said Keith with a boyish grin. He rolled a few over to read the names that were engraved on them. "Cosmo!" he read aloud. "Patsy." He said to a dark green one and then he struck gold.

"A Walt ball." He said, looking up at Natalie.

"But we only need two," said Natalie, looking confused.

"If we were just bowling," said Keith mysteriously.

After buying all three balls along with one named Rio (Keith knew exactly where_ he_ was going) and a few others, they loaded them up into the back of his truck and drove off to the garage. He couldn't take Natalie bowling without giving his truck a little maintenance as well.

Once his fender was worked on, Keith laid down underneath his truck and reacted it and fine tuned a few things with some spare parts.

As he worked, Natalie asked him about his truck along with his relationship with his dad and how close they were. Keith didn't answer at first mainly because it was so unexpected and he didn't like to talk about personal stuff so he responded with. "He was alive before the days of electrical ignition, I need him."

Unfortunately the work on his truck had used up his remaining time with Natalie so he was forced to drive her home so she could still catch her date with Raff. He wasn't fazed by it, he would just have to make become a rebel and stay up late.

As he drove down her street to drop her off, a sports car was driving towards them and Natalie immediately slouched down her seat so she couldn't be seen by the driver and Keith had a pretty good idea as to who it was without Natalie's hiss. "Go around the corner!"

"Ha!" he laughed. "He's prompt! I like that in a man!"

"Shut up! Just drive!" she snapped, smacking his leg.

Ignoring her request, Keith slowed and then stopped under a streetlight. This forced Natalie to sit up and she began fixing and primping her hair, not that it was messed up in the first place. Keith watched with interest, noting how she admired herself in his rearview mirror and wondered if Raff knew how lucky he was to have to her for his girlfriend…

Then Natalie stopped her preening and looked at him whereupon Keith remarked. "Sneak down the back alley to your boyfriend…sexy."

She said nothing and looked away to open the door when Keith said quickly. "I'll pick you up at four."

She turned around gave him a strange look.

"A.m." he clarified.

"What are we doing at four a.m.?"

"It's not a date," he assured her in a whisper.

With that, she got out and walked around his truck and up to her house.

"I'll be right here!" he called to her. "This'll be our spot!" Certain that she had heard him, he smiled to himself as he drove home to catch some sleep.

Because at four a.m. the fun began.

**Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffy! Please review! Oh and as I said in the prologue I'm going to write about Keith's two week absence for school. Since it is never really said where he was during that time or what happened to him, I'm going to ask you, my faithful reviewers to give me your thoughts on the subject. When I watched the movie I thought it was for some emergency treatment that was supposed to work but didn't and that's where he found out that he really was dying (I forget if he knew in the beginning that he really was dying for sure) but obviously since he came back with a full head of hair that didn't happen. So send me your thoughts in your reviews! They are greatly appreciated!**


	9. Four O'clock Bowling

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late update again! But I don't think it took as long as last time. Thank you all who gave me suggestions for what happened during Keith's two week absence. I now know what I'm going to write for that chapter/chapters but you'll just have to wait and see.**

**In the meantime here is chapter 8 which is another hilarious part in the movie: the bowling scene. Enjoy and please review!**

Chapter 8

Four O'clock Bowling

Instead of going home and going to bed like he should have done, Keith went back to the thrift store and bought a few more bowling balls. Then he went home and after looking up a few important addresses in the phonebook, he caught a few hours of sleep before he woke up at three forty-five to pick up Natalie.

As he drove up to their 'secret spot' underneath the streetlight, he saw that she was already waiting for him. He pulled up to her and she got in and then they drove off for their bowling scene.

Keith selected the first house that would receive one of their 'special deliveries'. He parked next to the driveway, got out and grabbed a ball from the back. Then, he jogged up to the front yard and slowly and carefully rolled the ball onto the grass just as if he were rolling it down a lane. When it stopped, he ran back to his truck and off they drove to the next house.

"Just think," said Keith as he drove. "In a few years you're gonna have a great big family and you're gonna wanna share stories and one of the stories will be about how when you were in high school you put a bowling ball on your chemistry teacher's front porch." He lifted up Walt the bowling ball as he spoke. "And his name was Walt."*

"I refuse!" said Natalie, as if it was the most ridiculous thing in the world…which it was.

But despite her refusal, Natalie gave in when they reached Walter Miles' house. She grabbed the Walt ball from him, ran up to the house, placed on his front porch and then sprinted back to his truck.

"Go!" she yelled when she slammed the passenger door. "Get outta here, you jerk!" she yelled when he meticulously checked his rearview mirror.

And so the evening went. They stopped outside of darkened houses and rolled their named balls onto front yards, paths or porches. They delivered bowling balls around their neighborhood until there were only three balls left: Rio, Cosmo and Patsy.

Keith saved Rio for last and he parked outside of Raff's house, he showed Natalie the name.

"His last name is Marques," she said.

"It's the thought that counts," said Keith.

Natalie rolled her eyes at him as Keith smiled in triumph and she grabbed the ball and ran up to his house with it. Keith waited patiently in his truck, smirking to himself at his brilliance. But that smirk vanished when the spotlight of a police car flashed in his mirror and he flattened himself against the seats. Natalie must have seen the car as she appeared a moment, lying beside him.

"I'm gonna be so screwed," she hissed into his ear.

"Yeah, well, if we're caught just take one of these," Keith whispered, passing her a Tic-Tac.

"It's not _funny_, idiot!"

As the police car rolled down the street, the spotlight flashed briefly over their faces as it passed but it didn't stop. They waited for a few tense minutes to make sure that it didn't come back and when he felt it was safe, Keith sat up slowly and Natalie followed suit.

* * *

"So who gets these?" Natalie asked fifteen minutes later. They were sitting in a local diner, having an early breakfast in celebration of their successful delivery of the bowling balls and their escape from getting caught. But there were still Patsy and Cosmo left.

Keith lowered his coffee cup and picked up one of the balls. "Well, you give up now. Pasty," he said, looking up at her. "You're gonna be state champion."

"My daddy won't let me," said Natalie in mock sadness. "Cosmo." she added, glancing at the ball and then looking up at Keith.

Keith snorted. "Now, what's your daddy know 'bout your bowling?"

"Oh, but I gotta respect my daddy's wishes," Natalie protested in a theatrical Southern accent. "To him it's just a game and games are the devil's handiwork."

"Ah, but see, you're the greatest!" cried Keith. "You could make the Nationals!"

"But he's had a hard life. I mean, he nearly killed himself rasin' us nine kids." She blinked away imaginary tears and softly. "That was the last game."

"Well, darlin'," said Keith in mock sincerity as he leaned closer to her. "Then it was my last game too." Then he picked up a green crayon and wrote on the corner of his paper placemat. " 'Dear Waitress, _please_ find a home…for our balls…Cosmo and Pasty.' "

He ripped off the section where his note was placed it under the salt shaker. Natalie looked at it dejectedly. "This is the saddest day of our lives."

"Indeed, it is," Keith agreed sadly.

After they had paid their bill and exited the diner, Keith and Natalie watched through the window as the waitress went to their table, read the note and gave the balls a look that said. "What the hell am I supposed to do with these?"

Keith smiled in laughter and looked at Natalie to see that she was smiling to. He looked quickly away once he had met her gaze and then together, they walked to his truck and Keith drove her home.

* * *

Keith purposefully slept through his first three classes and got to school just before Chemistry started. He couldn't have been happier with previous night's adventures and had in fact, found it rather enjoyable. It had certainly lightened up Natalie quite a bit since she had gone through with his weird scheme. He flashed her a boyish grin as he swept onto his stool at their lab station. It went unnoticed as she was concentrating on their lab but Keith didn't mind in the slightest.

With the success of the picnic and bowling scenes, he decided to give Natalie a break for awhile and allow her to get back to her normal, boring, controlled life while he thought of something new to perturb her perfect life.

That day and the next went by without any new ideas or plans and Keith was starting to panic. What else could he do to help her get out of her comfort zone? He knew he had already accomplished quite a lot. He had managed to break through her wall of perfection and everything academia by showing her how to have fun and do ridiculous things. But he knew there was more to be done. He_ had_ to do more.

The answer came on Friday evening in a very unexpected way.

* * *

On that evening, Keith was sitting in his living room finishing up his Chemistry homework when his dad walked into the room, carrying a worn box under his arm.

"Hey, Keith," he said setting the box down on the coffee table. "I know that we've been trying to fix your truck up as best as we can but I found that it really needs a new carburetor. Yours will be fine for awhile but I got this used one cheap from Andy. You just need to tune it up a bit and it'll work good as new."

Keith glanced at the box. "Okay, Dad, thanks."

"No problem, I'll be out in the garage for awhile, then."

"Okay."

When his dad had left, Keith made a few more notes on his homework and then threw his notebook into his backpack. Then he turned his attention to the box. Opening it, he found that all of the pieces were there to assemble it along with the main body and a directions booklet. He stared at the pieces for a long time, glad that he knew how to put it together because all of the pieces by themselves looked like one big confusing puzzle that take a lot of concentration and planning to put together.

_A lot of concentration and planning…_

And the light bulb went on in his head.

This would be his next task for Natalie. It was confusing yet stimulating at the same time. Besides, it really wasn't that hard to put together if one only followed the directions, something that he _knew_ Natalie was perfect at.

Keith stood up and ran up his room in his excitement. There he found an index card and wrote _9pm, secret spot_ on one side and on the other he wrote, _Guaranteed not to raise your GPA_. Because it wasn't really, he figured as he walked back down stairs and slipped the card into the box. It was for her to experience something different that was important in his life and to make her fix up something that was broken like his life and family and very unlike her own.

It also gave her a reason to hang out with him again.

Ten minutes later, Keith rang the doorbell of her house, holding the carburetor box to his chest and waiting anxiously, trying to think of something to say in case Natalie happened to answer the door.

But it wasn't Natalie who answered; it was a teenage boy whom Keith supposed was her brother.

"Hi," he said slowly, staring at Keith.

"Hi," said Keith. "This is for Natalie." He held out the box to him.

"Um, okay," said the boy as he took it carefully. "What is it?"

"Something that needs fixing," said Keith with a smirk. "Make sure she gets it, okay?"

"Okay," said the boy, clearly very confused at the delivery.

"Alright, thanks."

And before the boy could reply, Keith turned and walked back to his truck that was parked under the streetlight. He got in and made himself comfortable while he waited for Natalie to appear.

Keith smiled to himself. He could only imagine what Natalie's face would look like when she opened the box and found nothing but an old car part.

**Author's Note: The part with the little star by it is my favorite line in the movie. I just love how Keith/Jesse says it, so nonchalant and everything. But the whole airport scene at the end is absolutely brilliant as well. Keith/Jesse's expressions throughout that made me tear up. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter and please review!**


	10. Surprises and Revelations

**Author's Note: Hello everybody! Once again, I am terribly sorry for the long delay in updating, This chapter ended up being longer than I thought it was going to be, but it was one of the more interesting scenes where we get more into Keith's head. I hope interpreted his thoughts well enough but I will leave that up for you to decide. Enjoy and please review! **

Chapter 9

Surprises and Revelations

Keith waited patiently for twenty minutes under the streetlight but eventually he got bored watching her house and began making an effort in cleaning his truck. He hadn't realized how dirty had gotten and shoved most of what he found into his glove compartment to throw away later. He did find his chemistry goggles and he wondered briefly how they had gotten there. He slipped them over his eyes so he would forget them and then continued to wait for Natalie.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Keith," said a familiar voice sternly.

He looked out the passenger window and saw Natalie looking seriously at him. He forced his most charming smile on his face as she added. "We need to talk."

"Okay, hop in."

"No. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Cool, then I'll come inside and watch TV with Pete and Caroline." He threatened her casually.

"No," said Natalie instantly, shaking her head. "No."

He continued to stare at her with the boyish grin playing on his lips.

"_No_," she emphasized.

And so a minute later, Natalie was sitting in his passenger's seat as he drove down the street.

"You can't just deliver crap to my house like that," said Natalie.

Keith snickered. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Listen," she said. "I like you, Keith. I like being friends with you. But if we're going to hang out from now, I gotta be a part of the plan."

"See, but there are no plans," said Keith.

"Bullshit," she said as she rolled her eyes. "You got some whole scenario worked out."

"Is that what you think?" he snapped at her.

"Yeah, I do! And you can't just expect me to drop everything---"

"Wait, wait," he interrupted. "I don't _expect_ you to do anything! You're free to go at anytime! In fact, what is Natalie Anderson doing out with a truck geek like me anyway?" The question hung in the tense air between them as he slowed to stop at a four way intersection.

"Well, this is cool," Keith remarked lightly. "This is the scene where we're at the crossroads."

"You're being a jerk."

"Well, c'mon Miss Debate Queen! Stud boyfriend, tennis champ! Don't you have better things to do on a Friday night? Just go, leave, get outta here," he finished softly, looking away from her. She didn't answer him for a minute or so and when she did it was the sound the passenger door opening and slamming shut.

"You know, I thought you were different!" she cried. "But you're not different!" Keith slowly turned his head to look at her, his face blank as her next words stung him. "You're just another immature little boy! And you're right, I am wasting my time here." He merely pressed his lips together as she turned and walked away down the street. When she was gone, Keith looked ahead at the road, wondering what to do when Natalie's angry voice came from his left side.

"And what about you, Mr. Egomaniac?" she inquired angrily. "Why are you always giving me gifts and writing clever little notes all the time? Why don't_ you_ leave?"

Keith didn't look at her or answer her questions. He tried to look as impassive as possible but he knew it was a losing battle. He couldn't believe that after everything that they had done together that she thought that he was just immature kid. He wasn't special to her at all. She probably thought that he was just some weird kid….just like everybody else.

And she was annoyed with him, fed up with his games.

"Go ahead," she prompted. "Drive away right now."

_Why don't _you_ leave?_ He thought stiffly. _You started this whole stupid argument. Don't yell at me!_

Their one-way argument came to an abrupt end when a red car pulled up next them and Keith heard a little boy yell excitedly. "There's Keith! Al, stop!"

_Shit!_ Keith thought. _Al…Billy, not now!_

But the car stopped anyway (it was at a stop sign after all) and Keith's young friend, Billy jumped out and ran up to his window, forcing Natalie to step aside.

"Keith!" cried Billy, his face bright with excitement. "They got me Dai-Ranto All-Star Smash Brothers and Gran Turisimo 3. And they got all these characters that beat each other up and---"

"Billy, hey bud. How's it going?" Keith grinned, laying a hand on his shoulder once he could cut into his young friend's mile-a-minute chatter.

"Listen this is, uh, Sophie," he said pointing at Natalie. Billy automatically turned to her and waved before he launched back into a description of the video game characters.

"Natalie," said Natalie, glancing at him with a confused look on her face and then up at Al.

"I'm Al," said Al.

Ignoring Billy, Keith looked between them, saw that they were glancing curiously at each other and thought to himself. _Well isn't this just an awkward meeting?_ To Billy he said, "She's a double agent, you can't trust her," and he flashed him a wide fake smile.

But Billy didn't hear him as he resumed his description of the video games at full speed. "And they got all these monsters that are battling and clashing at each other and…"

"Well, good," said Keith. "CAUSE I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!" he shouted at him as way of shutting him up. The whole situation was becoming too uncomfortable for him and he knew Natalie was dying to know how he knew Billy and Al and he wasn't about to tell her.

"I'll kick your ass!" Billy yelled back and promptly climbed up into the bed of his truck. "C'mon, let's get outta here!" he coaxed. "C'mon, let's go to your house!"

"Billy," Keith called, trying to get him to settle down and get him to pay attention. "Billy, I'm on special assignment tonight, buddy. How---how about tomorrow night?"

"Aw, I got school tomorrow!" Billy said. "So, c'mon, let's go!"

No doubt seeing how frustrated (and torn) Keith was, Al said gently. "Come on, Billy, let's go."

"But my parents don't care!" cried Billy, suddenly realizing what was going on. "C'mon, Al, please?!"

"No, Billy, come down."

"All we need is one more night! _One more_!"

"Billy."

"Aw, man!" he sighed and got down from the bed and sadly got back into Al's car.

"I'll talk to you, Keith?" Al asked, poking his arm gently.

Keith had gone into a daze as he tried to look as if he didn't know the two of them that well in an attempt to keep Natalie from asking him uncomfortable questions but Al's poke jarred him out of his thoughts and he looked up at his counselor. "Hang in there, Al," he replied. "You're doin' great." Al rolled his eyes at his comment, then gave a parting look to Natalie who had stood in silence during the entire time, turned and walked to his car and got in.

Billy was already sitting in the passenger's seat and Keith looked at him and said, "Kick your ass."

"Kick _your_ ass," his friend smirked and then waved to Natalie as Al started the car and they drove away.

When they were gone, Natalie looked at him and asked, as he knew she would. "So, how do you know them?"

"The neighborhood," Keith replied softly, his face expressionless.

"Billy's what? Like hyperactive or something?" she asked. "And you're his counselor? Tutor? Something like that?"

He stared at her and didn't answer, only thought. _Whatever you wanna think, partner. _

She snorted, apparently at the thought of someone like him tutoring someone like Billy. "Such a guy…turns out you're a softie."

Keith said nothing. He wasn't exactly sure why he wasn't saying anything. He definitely didn't want to tell Natalie the truth, so maybe he just wanted her to keep guessing and wondering about him and his life.

Provided that she didn't find out the truth. Natalie knowing the whole truth was _not_ part of his plan at all.

While he had been thinking, Natalie walked around to the passenger side of his truck and got in. "So, what is it?" she asked instantly. "Church program? The Y? Volunteer thing?"

_No,_ thought Keith, _just regular good old-fashioned chemotherapy_.

Catching the hint that he wasn't going to answer any of her questions, Natalie settled herself into her seat and said, "Let's get outta here….C'mon let's go." She prompted when he didn't start driving.

Then she hit the jackpot.

"Got a yellow truck, road in front of us and nothing but opportunities, right?" she said, turning to look at him and flashing a small smile.

Had the situation not been so tense for him, Keith would've laughed out loud. His plan was working! She had thrown his own words right back at him! How awesome and unexpected was that?!

All in all, it was absolutely amazing….like her.

He looked at her then, but still didn't say anything as he started his truck and drove down the road.

* * *

He really didn't have any plans for that evening so he just guided his truck down the road and let it take him and Natalie wherever it went.

Soon they were driving down a road that was densely wooded and it was so dark that Keith switched his headlights on. As they continued onward, Natalie said suddenly, "Turn right. Right at that dirt road up ahead."

Keith knew exactly where that road was, he could find it blindfolded but he wanted to know how the hell Natalie knew it was there. And so he braked.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Why here?" Keith asked in reply.

"Why?' There's not supposed to be a why, right?" she said with a small mischievous grin. Keith merely looked her; he couldn't believe the complete three-sixty that her attitude had taken in the span of a ten minute encounter. Well, he was certainly going to take advantage of it.

He turned sharply to the right and hit the gas so that they flew down the dirt road and were subsequently jostled and jolted by the various bumps and potholes.

"Whoa!" Natalie yelled as they drove over a particularly bumpy section. "Slow down!"

"Just funny, real funny," Keith remarked as if they were driving down a smoothly paved street.

"What?" asked Natalie and Keith detected a trace of laughter in her question.

"That you chose this road."

The road that Natalie had chosen was the very same road that led to his 'secret spot'. When they arrived, he parked his truck where he usually did and then together they walked down to the shoreline and sat down in the grass.

As was usual, especially for a Friday night, the glow of bonfire could be clearly seen across the lake. Keith and Natalie sat side by side and neither spoke for a few moments as they stared across the lake, thinking their own thoughts. For Keith, he was thinking about the night seemed to be full of surprises. He had felt that he had had everything under control with his plan to give Natalie Anderson a reality check and until now he had felt that he had succeeded at least to some degree. In fact, he wasn't really sure when she would be declared completely changed. Maybe that was because he didn't even know himself, only time would tell.

But now with the unexpected appearance of Billy and Al and Natalie somehow knowing about his secret spot, without actually knowing that it was his, was just weird. And maybe some higher force was letting him know that some things about his plan were beyond his control and were 'destined' to happen without him having any forewarning.

Whatever was going on, Keith was pretty damn confused by it all.

And the confusion and strangeness of the night was far from over.

"So that's the Brink," said Natalie, finally breaking the long silence. "I've never been on this side."

"I've never been on that side," said Keith quietly.

"You're not missing much."

"Really? I thought you were the Brink Queen."

"It's getting really old," she admitted, glancing at him. "It's all about what you're wearing and who's hooking up with who and showing off your boyfriend."

"The essential information," Keith remarked with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah," Natalie agreed. "Down there they live and die by that crap. But up here it's like, why did I ever care?"

Keith didn't look at her. He couldn't believe what she was saying. Natalie Anderson. The tennis champ, the straight-A student _hated_ all of the attention, _hated_ being popular! Well, maybe she didn't _hate_ it but she certainly didn't like it as much as she thought she did at one point.

Maybe some of what he was trying to do was finally rubbing off on her. Maybe he really was making a difference in her life. Maybe he had reached his goal without even realizing it.

And also, Keith realized that for once they weren't having a conversation just as lab partners or one that would only end in a fight.

They were having a conversation as…._friends_.

Keith pressed his lips together to keep himself from crying at all of these wonderful revelations.*

"But you don't," she said softly.

"What?" Keith asked, coming back to the present.

"You don't care what people think, you're just…you."

Keith snorted. "Whatever that is."

"It's a good thing," she said. "It's a really good thing."

He looked at her and saw that she was smiling gently at him and their eyes locked for the briefest of moments and during that time, his heart sped up excitedly. Perturbed by this strange reaction, Keith quickly looked away to stare out at the lake once more.

"So do you come here a lot?" she asked again breaking the awkward silence.

He didn't answer.

"Cool, I found your place."

"I dunno how you did, chances are probably one in a million," Keith said with a smile.

"Oh, well, stranger things have happened, right?"

Keith glanced at her and saw that she was smiling again and he quickly looked away as his heart sped up again. What the hell was going on? Why did he have this weird desire to…kiss her?

And just as that thought entered his mind, rational thought left him and he turned toward her, cupped one side of her face and pressed his lips to hers.

He didn't pressure her to kiss him back, he just wanted to feel the taste of her lips on his, feel what it was like to have her breath become his. She tasted sweet and soft and he wanted to explore more but he didn't dare cross any more lines then he already had.

And just when he felt her begin to return the kiss, rational through returned with full force and he broke away from her, blinking in confusion. Why the hell did he do that? He was making her cheat on her boyfriend! He didn't deserve to kiss her.

Feeling very disoriented, dazed and utterly confused, Keith quickly turned away from her and yet another awkward silence fell on them. Keith was in shock from what he had done. It was rash and stupid and completely inappropriate.

Then why did he have such a strong desire to do it again?

"We should probably go," said Keith softly. "We're lab partners."

"Yeah."

"And this is strictly a lab partnership."

"Absolutely."

"And Walter would be very, _very_ upset right now."*

He didn't even wait for her to reply, he just got up and walked as quickly as he could to still make it look like normal speed, back to his truck. There, he got in and gripped the steering wheel tightly, wondering about all that he had done….and hoping that he had not destroyed the fragile relationship that he had with Natalie Anderson.

**Author's Note: I have many favorite scenes in this movie and one of them is the first kiss scene, cuz it's unexpected especially from Keith and their faces afterward are hilarious! **

**The first * is for that there's a moment where the camera focuses on Keith and he has this expression that I interpreted as that he was going to cry, that's just what I thought. The second is just another great/favorite line from Keith. Please review!**


	11. Reality Strikes

**Author's Note: Here's chapter 10 which marks the start of Keith's two week absence and gives a reason for it. Since all of you gave me such good suggestions for it, I decided to combine ALL of them. So the last half of the chapter is pretty dramatic and I had fun writing it. Hope you enjoy and please review!**

**A note for any underage readings: this chapter contains the "f" word. Just warning you, in case you don't like swearing. :)**

Chapter 10

Reality Strikes

Despite the awkwardness that had occurred, the very next night both of them were back at the lake. Except this time they were lying in the back of his truck, facing the opposite direction from each other. Natalie was wearing his jacket because as it was particular cool night, he gave her his jacket to keep warm, being the gentleman that he was. They talked for awhile anything and everything but whenever Natalie ventured toward the topic of 'the future' or 'after graduation', Keith always came up with some reply to avoid going further. He didn't want to talk about the future, since his was so uncertain and he much preferred to talk about the present.

They managed to talk for an hour like this before Natalie said, "Okay, partner, now I got a scene for you."

"Shoot."

"It's the scene where you tell me the truth."

Keith smirked but inwardly thought. _Oh, crap, not again!_ To Natalie he said, "Big confession scene."

"Yeah, so what are you doing after graduation? Really?"

Keith didn't answer for a few moments, debating whether or not to lie but he decided that for once, she deserved at least a little bit of the truth. "I'm going to London."

"London?" she repeated, surprised. "Really? Me too! With Raff and Brooke and Travis, we should meet up."

Keith smiled without really knowing why. "Not that London. London, Ontario. There's a classic truck show every year there in July."

"So you really are a truck geek," Natalie said and Keith could sense that she was smiling.

"See I open up to you and you dump on me," he said as if he had known it all along….which in a way he had.

"No," she said quickly. "It's just that I know you have dreams, more than a truck show."

"Sky's the limit, right?" he said softly.

"Yeah, actually it is."

"You, sure?"

"I'm sure you sell yourself short."

Keith said nothing and merely stared up at the cloudy sky and smiled to himself. He would let her think whatever she wanted to think, he wasn't going to tell her anything…not yet anyway.

"Are we---are we moving?" Natalie asked suddenly. Keith's smile widened, his game was being set in motion. It was a game of his to set his truck in neutral and then slowly let it roll down the cliff while he would lay in the bed of his truck, waiting for the exact moment when it was sure to go over and he would get up, hop into the driver's seat and hit the brake. The game, although very risky was about chance for him and chance he felt, was what life was all about.

Meanwhile, in the present, Natalie had gotten up on her knees and peered over the side. "We are moving," she stated.

"It's like we're moving through space on a mission," said Keith dreamily.

"Keith, we have a problem."

"I think there's something wrong with our space craft."

"Keith! Get up!"

"But our trusted co-pilot Natalie Anderson only says, 'It's gonna go over!' "

"It's gonna go over! Keith, stop it! Stop the truck!"

"And 'Keith, stop it!' "

"Keith, c'mon, get up or you're gonna get killed!" Natalie yelled at him. She had climbed out of the bed and was now trying to stop the truck but it kept moving closer and closer toward the lake while Keith lay calmly in back, waiting for the right moment.

"Keith, HURRY UP!"

" 'Get up, Keith. Get up'." said Keith in a distant voice as he smiled as if someone had told him a particularly funny joke instead of his truck rolling dangerously close over a cliff.

He could feel his truck gaining speed and he knew it was time so he pushed himself up and expertly climbed over to the driver's side, opened the door and slammed on the brakes, the front tires mere inches from the edge.

"What the hell was that?!" Natalie cried, running up to the passenger side window. "You don't do shit like that, you could get yourself killed!"

"Just imagine what would've happened to my truck," said Keith softly.

Natalie snorted and said sarcastically. "Oh, yeah, just imagine."

* * *

The drive back to her house was in complete silence, Natalie stared straight ahead the entire way and did not so much as glance at him. In a way, Keith couldn't blame her. He was sure that she was mad him and that the only thing looked liked some sort of suicide attempt. And plus it wasn't every day that someone intentionally decided to roll their car off of a cliff….unless they wanted to kill themselves of course.

When they reached her house, Natalie asked, "Did you _want_ to go over?"

"I wasn't even close," Keith replied.

"Yes, you were," she said firmly.

"You don't know what close is," he said suddenly serious.

"Don't give me one of your stupid lines," she snapped. "I_ know_ what close is."

He looked away from then. Her words stung and he unconsciously gripped the steering wheel in anger. What the hell did she know? Had she ever lost a family member, a _close_ family member? Her, in her perfect world where she was happy. How the _hell_ did she know what close meant? She had no fucking idea at all.

He wanted very much to tell her what close meant. He wanted to tell her the whole truth right then and there but he didn't. He kept his cool and pretended to readjust his mirror because he had nothing else to say to her.

"Goodnight, partner," he said loud enough for her to hear.

She was obviously struck by his sudden mood change because there was a moment of silence before she replied. "Take care of yourself, okay."

Keith bit his lip but did not turn around and heard her get out of the truck and walk up to her house, still wearing his jacket. He waited until she was at her front door and had turned around to look at him before he drove off for home.

* * *

It was nearly midnight when Keith got home. The moment he walked in his front door, fatigue hit him like a brick wall. This was very strange. Usually he was a night owl and could stay wide awake for a long time. But now he felt utterly exhausted and figured that a solid night's sleep would do him good. So without even taking off his clothes, Keith padded into his room and collapsed onto his bed.

Keith had the best sleep of his life that night but when he woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock, he couldn't have been more miserable both mentally and physically. He had dreamed of his cliff stunt and the fight that had erupted because of it but this time Natalie had been madder at him and had shouted that she didn't want to be his friend anymore because he was just some 'depressed, suicidal manic'. Keith knew of course that this couldn't be true because he knew that she had said no such thing, but he still couldn't help feeling bad about the whole thing.

As for the physical aspect, he felt like he had the flu or something. His head felt heavy and when he stood up, he swayed on the spot and a slight pain jolted through his legs causing him to fall back onto his bed and smack his arm on his nightstand. Slightly alarmed by this, Keith got up again and gripped the carper with his toes to steady himself. Once he was certain that he wouldn't fall, he slowly walked out of his room and into the bathroom across the hall to shower.

When he had done his business, he took off his shirt and found to his alarm that a bruise had already formed on his arm from where he had hit his nightstand. Keith was very surprised by this as he knew that a bruise couldn't have formed _that_ quickly although he had hit it pretty hard…

He lowered his arm and winced when a jolt of pain shot through it. It was an aching kind of pain as if he had just run a five miles at a sprint but his whole body had been affected rather than just his legs. Rather perturbed now by these sudden aches and pains, Keith hoped that a shower would do him some good. He turned toward the shower and nearly fainted for the first time in his life.

The type of shower was the tall thin king with an actual glass door that could be securely closed. The glass was see through and it was easy to see one's reflection in it as Keith could easily see his entire torso and it was what was on his chest that made him back up against the counter to steady himself.

His chest was speckled with tiny red dots like chicken pox. But Keith had had chicken pox when he was five so he knew that these dots were not caused by that. But something far worse.

"Dad!" Keith shouted at that instant, hoping that his father had left for work yet. "DAD!"

He distantly heard running footsteps as his hands that gripped the counter began to sweat and the bones in his legs began to ache more intensely than they had before.

"Keith! What is it? What's wrong?" Henry asked as he reached the threshold and took in the sight of his son, shirtless and holding on to the sink for support as his pale face was drenched in sweat.

"Look at my chest, Dad!" Keith cried, who was very scared at this point "Look at my chest! It came back again, Dad! It---It came _back_!"

Henry must have seen the red dots because his eyes widened and in two steps, he was in the room and holding his son firmly by the shoulders. "Keith, it's gonna be okay!" he said firmly. "Let's get you dressed and we'll go to the hospital right now!"

"No! No, they can't help because it came back!" Keith cried. His head was spinning at this point and his heart was racing. Henry nearly had to carry him out of the bathroom and lay him gently on his bed. When he was on his bed, he relaxed a little and heard his dad speaking hurriedly into his cell phone and then his eyes began to droop of their own accord and then he saw no more.

**Author's Note: Oh, snap! Major cliffy! Hehehe. Sorry but I had to do it. In case anyone is interested, the symptoms I am describing are of acute leukemia. Obviously in the movie they never mention what type of cancer Keith has (and is it really that important, anyway?) so I chose leukemia cuz it's the most common in children and teens. And I'm sure not all of these symptoms would occur **_**all **_**at the same time either, but it adds to the drama of the last bit, don't you think? I will update when I can! Please review!**


	12. The First Week

**Author's Note: Once again, I'm sorry for the long wait for this next chapter after such a marvelous cliffy in the one before. But as the title says, here is the chapter that tells what happened in the first week of Keith's two week absence. Hope you enjoy (and that it lives up to what you imagined happened during that time!) and please review!**

Chapter 11

The First Week

Keith regained consciousness slowly. When he was finally able to open his eyes and see where he was, he closed them again and wanted very much to return to being unconscious or better yet, lying in the back of his truck next to Natalie. But Keith, despite his grogginess decided not to prolong the inevitable and opened his eyes all the way.

He was lying in a hospital bed in what he could've sworn was the same room he had had been during his other rounds of treatment. Yet he had been in so many hospital rooms that they had all started to look the same to him and besides, it didn't really matter if it was the same room because it wasn't_ his_ room at home.

The hospital room that he found himself in was pretty much like any other hospital room: bare gray walls, white tile floor, large window and a strong smell of disinfectant.

Once he had swept his gaze over the small room, Keith looked down at himself and saw that an IV tube had been inserted into his left arm and he wore the white identification bracelet around his wrist with ZETTERSTROM, KEITH stamped across it. To further his displeasure at being in the hospital he found that his clothes had been replaced with the typical thin cloth gown.

Keith sighed heavily and leaned back against the pillows as he recalled the shock that he had received with the appearance of the red dots on his chest and his bone aches. He vaguely remembered that he had lost conciseness but he couldn't think of any reason as to why he would.

He lay still for a few seconds before he heard voices outside his door and quickly recognized them as those of his dad's and his doctor's.

"Henry, you've got to understand that acute leukemia is a very fast progressing cancer," his doctor, Dr. Grant was saying exasperatedly. "I'm actually quite surprised that Keith lasted this long between treatments."

"Oh, so you just expected him to drop dead at any minute and not warn me first!" his dad practically yelled at him.

"No, of course not, but I didn't expect the cancer to go into remission like it had but now that its come back, we have to act quickly."

"So, if he has more treatment will he get better? Will it go away?"

"Yes, he's going to have more treatment and we're going to be very aggressive about it and hopefully that will…slow the process."

Keith had a pretty good idea as to what 'slow the process' meant but before he could really think about it, a nurse poked her head into his room and exclaimed. "Richards! What the heck are you doing back here?!"

"Hey, Marcy," Keith groaned.

Marcy had been Keith's nurse since his diagnosis and was also the one who oversaw his treatments. Even though she was in her early thirties, she still knew about all of the new 'trends' and could easily hold a conversation with a seven-year-old or in Keith's case, a seventeen-year-old patient. She also loved to tease Keith about having the same first name as the Rolling Stones bassist and knowing full well that Keith _hated_ the Stones.

"I'm glad you're sitting up finally," said Marcy as she strode over to his bedside. "You were out for quite awhile."

"Why did I faint like that?"

"Just another symptom of the cancer coming back," she said as she tugged his gown down a little so she could listen to his heart, whereupon Keith saw that the red dots were still there but there weren't as many. And apparently his heart sounded good as she took her stethoscope away and asked, "How are you feeling? Any aches or pains?"

"No, I'm just really tired and my head hurts."

"Well, you should feel a bit better once you have some food in you. Otherwise, ya look good to me, Richards." She added with a small smile.

At that moment, Henry and Dr. Grant entered the room. "Hello, Keith," said Dr. Grant. "How are you feeling?"

"I dunno, ask Marcy," said Keith, who really didn't feel like answering the same old questions. "She just looked at me."

"He's still the same old Keith," Marcy told the doctor. "Vitals look good and everything, he just needs some food."

"And more chemo apparently," said Keith dully. " 'Cause the cancer came back, right, doc?"

"Yes, Keith, it has and as I told your dad, we're going to be very aggressive with this round of treatment as acute leukemia progresses very quickly," said Dr. Grant. "We'll start you on chemo within a few hours and both Marcy and I will oversee it, alright?"

"Okay."

"Alright, we'll leave you and your dad alone now. See you later, Keith."

Keith said nothing as the doctor and Marcy left. When they were gone, he turned his head to look at his dad and said, "My life sucks, Dad."

"I know, Keith, it does. But not everyone's dealt a fair hand," said Henry, rubbing his shoulder as a way to comfort him.

"Am I gonna lose all my hair again? 'Cause let me tell you that was the most embarrassing time of my life."

"There's a great possibility that you will, Keith, I'm sorry."

"Crap." was his only response.

Soon after, another nurse named Shannon delivered him breakfast and Keith spent the rest of the morning willing himself to eat it. He knew it was important but he also didn't want to puke all over the place either. He managed to force down the food and then shortly afterward, it was time.

As they had said, both Marcy and Dr. Grant came into his room together. Although, as before it was Marcy who administered the drugs and as she was setting up, Keith noticed something different.

"I'm not getting the drip this time?" he asked.

"Nope, sorry kiddo, we're using the fast stuff," Marcy replied as she handed him a small cup of two pills that would prevent him from getting nauseous. Once he swallowed them, she inserted a new IV into his arm and said, "This is the 'pump' form of chemo, it's much faster than the drip but it's basically the same thing so you shouldn't experience anything new."

Keith sighed heavily and leaned back against the pillows. "Okay, let's just get this over with."

It really was a lot like his other treatments except for the fact that his fingers and toes hurt terribly, but Keith merely bit his lip against the pain and waited for the procedure to be over. By the time it was over, two hours later, Keith was exhausted and despite the medication, felt very nauseous. He barely touched his dinner that night.

* * *

And so it went for four days. Keith would have his chemo in the early afternoon and then spend the rest of the day recuperating. He only vomited a few times and he was tired for much of the time but thankfully his hair did not fall out.

On the afternoon of the fifth day when his dad visited him, Al came along. Keith forced a smile on his lips when he saw his counselor and said, "Well, Al, looks like my dad told you where I've been hiding out for the past few days."

"Yeah, it seems that way," said Al as he sat down near him. "How're you feeling, Keith?"

"Oh, you know, just like every other person whose had a shitload of chemicals pumped into them…like shit," said Keith, his words oozing with sarcasm. "But otherwise I'm good." He paused and then asked, "So, Al, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner but I had some…things to take care of and then, I only got your dad's message last night and here I am," said Al. "I was going to ask you how your concrete goal is going but considering that I already saw…her, I'd say it's going pretty well."

"Yup," Keith agreed. Thinking of that night when he and Natalie had run into Al and Billy, a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Al," he said. "Since I kind of blew Billy off that last time, do you think he could come visit me? Some hardcore video gaming would do me some good, I think."

Al pressed his lips together and there was a short pause before he answered slowly, "Keith….I hate to tell you this, but Billy---Billy passed away."

Keith stared at him. "What? When?"

"Monday night. He got the flu and his system couldn't handle it…."

"But I thought he was cured!" Keith interrupted loudly.

"He was, technically, at least he had been in remission for awhile but his immune system wasn't as strong as it was. I---I'm really sorry."

Keith looked at Al for a few seconds before he slowly rolled over onto his side, away from the two men. No one spoke in the small room until he heard someone get up and walk around to his side of the bed and his dad said softly. "Keith…"

"Go away, Dad," Keith snapped. His voice was a little muffled since his mouth was half covered by his pillow. "I don't wanna talk right now."

"Keith, there was nothing you could---"

"The last thing I did to him was I blew him off when he wanted to play video games!" Keith said in the loudest voice that he could muster. "And all because I wanted to spend time with Natalie!"

"He didn't care about that, he was just glad to see you again," Al interjected. "Do you want to know the last thing he said to me before he died?"

"Not really, no."

"He said that you were the coolest person he ever met and that you were---and I'm quoting him here---best darn video game player ever. Doesn't that help that he looked up to you so much?"

"No, not really, 'cause I still blew him off."

"Keith, don't torture yourself over this," his dad said gently.

"Oh, shut up, Dad! Both of you, stop trying to make me feel better, okay?! I've got flippin' cancer and my best friend just died from it! Don't tell me not to torture myself over it and just leave me _alone_!" Keith yelled and then promptly buried his face in his pillow.

A long silence followed his outburst and Keith felt his dad lay his hand on top of his head for a moment before he heard footsteps as he and Al left the room.

It was when he heard the door close behind that Keith allowed the first tears to fall.

**Author's Note: Well, not as good of a cliffy as the first but still sad nonetheless. Oh and as a side note, I have never had chemo (thank god) so I'm basing everything that I wrote about chemo and the procedure from a few informative websites on Google. Just a little disclaimer there. Please review!**


	13. The Second Week

**Author's Note: Hello again! So sorry for the long wait in updating. I'm back at school after spring and have been very busy as well as my spring break was very busy. Anyway, here is the next chapter, which is pretty sad/dramatic. It's a bit shorter than the first but I hope you like it and please review!**

**Oh, and the lyrics belong to Thriving Ivory, not me. **

Chapter 12

The Second Week

_**Don't tell me if I'm dyin'**_

'_**cause I don't wanna know**_

_**If I can't see the sun,**_

_**Maybe I should go**_

_**Don't wake me 'cause I'm dreamin'**_

_**of angels on the moon**_

_**where everyone you know, **_

_**never leaves too soon**_

_**--- "Angels on the Moon", Thriving Ivory**_

* * *

Keith felt numb for the next few days. Numb with grief and guilt for Billy. He knew deep down that he had no way of knowing that that was going to be the last time he saw Billy, but he still felt horrible about it and didn't talk for two whole days. He just laid in bed and thought of Billy and the good times they had had while going through chemo. He was so 'out of it' that he didn't even realize when he was taken out of his room for numerous full body scans or even when two days had gone by.

On the third day of his second week in the hospital, he was finishing his lunch while his dad sat near him, engrossed in the newspaper while they waited for Dr. Grant and Marcy to arrive.

They arrived right on time but without the usual equipment for administering the drugs. In fact, Keith noticed with a twinge of alarm, they both looked rather…solemn.

"I have some rather bad news to tell you," said Dr. Grant, avoiding Keith's eye and speaking directly to Henry. "As you know, we've had Keith endure a lot of treatment over the past two weeks, much more so than is usual in order to handle the progression of the disease. However, throughout the various tests we have run, we found that…despite, all of our efforts, nothing is working."

Keith's blood went cold and he internally winced at the news.

"_What_?!" cried Henry. "What do you _mean_ nothing's working?! How can it not be working?!"

"The cancer has spread too much for the chemo to fight it off," Dr. Grant replied smoothly. "Also with all of the treatments that we were giving him, it seemed that the cancer eventually stopped responding to it as well. I'm sorry, Henry, but there's nothing else we can do."

"So, he's…he's going to…_die_?!" Henry gasped.

"Will everyone please stop talking about me like I'm not here?!" said Keith loudly in an attempt to not think about the prospect of his death and so they would pay attention to him.

Dr. Grant paused, considering how to best answer the question and he chose to tell the awful truth. "Yes, he is."

_Shit_, Keith thought as his dad collapsed back into his chair and buried his head in his hands. After a tense moment of silence, Henry asked with his head still covered with his hands. "How—how long does he have?"

"A month, maybe more if we're lucky," Dr. Grant replied softly. He paused and then said, "We'll leave you alone now." Then he turned and left the room. Marcy gave Keith an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder and an encouraging smile before she too exited the room.

When he and his dad were alone, Keith said loudly. "Okay, Dad, now my life _really_ sucks."

Henry said nothing in reply as the tears began to fall. Keith couldn't bear to his father cry, he always felt awkward. So he turned his head as he felt his father grasp his hand and hold it to his heart.

* * *

He was kept at the hospital overnight for 'observation' and to allow his body filtered out all of the chemicals.

And he spent it crying.

It was dark and his dad had gone home hours ago. Keith lay facing the opposite wall, away from the door and listened to the various sounds of a hospital at night. He had been told that sleep was the best medicine, but how the hell was he supposed to sleep with the beeping of machines, echoing footsteps and occasional call over the intercom?

Instead, he cried. Softly. Into his pillow, smothering the sound so that anyone who happened to hear it would think he was only sniffling. But no, he was crying, full on. Tears streamed from his eyes, down his cheeks and onto his tongue so he could taste their salty sweetness.

He cried for Billy, for his mother who had been taken from him far too soon, for his father who would soon be all alone. But mostly he cried for himself. He knew that cancer was a horrible disease and more people died from it than lived, but he felt that somehow, he would one of the lucky ones and survive. He didn't want to die like this, slowly and painfully, just wasting away and waiting for it all to end. It was a stupid way to die and one that Keith was not looking forward to at all.

He had a month, Dr. Grant had said. A month was hardly any time at all. A month would be over in the blink of an eye and he would be dead. Gone. Forever.

It was, quite possibly, the most depressing situation he had ever heard of.

Especially since, he realized suddenly, he wouldn't even graduate high school.

Keith moaned softly at this and began to cry, if possible even harder. He couldn't believe how utterly unfair life could be and how miserable he felt at that moment.

Drowning in his own misery and the thought of his pitiful existence, Keith continued to sob softly late into the night and wished that someone (preferably his mother) was there to comfort and hold and tell him that everything was going to be alright as if he were a child.

Eventually, he was out of tears and his closed eyes in exhaustion from the whole ordeal and yet felt strangely relieved. It was as if it had helped release some of the pain and anger that he had bottled up right from the very beginning.

Keith wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and thought bitterly that no one could possibly know what it was like to be truly miserable like he was now. They may think that they knew but they didn't. They didn't even have a single clue. At that moment, he wanted to make someone feel how miserable he was right now. To make them feel that they had absolutely no control over their lives anymore as it spun out of control.

And he knew exactly the person who he wanted to do such a thing to.

Natalie.

His concrete goal, so simple in the beginning, was now becoming more and more ambitious and complex with the passage of time.

Keith allowed the smallest of smiles to form on his lips at the thought of taking his plan to change Natalie to an all new level. It certainly was going to be very interesting.

With his spirits lifted a little, Keith snuggled under the thin hospital blankets and shut his eyes firmly and waited to fall asleep.

He slipped unknowingly into a deep sleep and dreamed sweet dreams of those whom he cared for the most in the world and that they all were happy and healthy and together.

And none of them left too soon.

**Author's Note: I hope the song lyrics make sense. I was listening to the song and it just kind of reminded me of the movie, especially with the line before the one I included, "I wanna feel all the chemicals inside, I wanna feel." It also reminded me of Keith himself in a way because he doesn't want pity or sympathy because he's dying and just wants to live his life. **

**Anyway, hope that all makes sense and please review!**


	14. On the Other Side

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! This was originally going to be the last chapter when I started this story but since it's gotten so popular (almost 1,000 hits which I know really isn't a lot but for a Keith story I think it is) I decided to continue on and just show the whole movie through Keith's perspective. I wasn't going to do it at first because I wasn't sure if people would get bored with seeing almost all of the exact same lines from the movie in this story. But apparently no one minds because they keep reading it! Thank you all so much. Enjoy the chapter and please review!**

**Oh and if anyone wants to buy the movie, it's available on and it's pretty cheap too (under 30 bucks and that includes shipping I think) I know cuz my copy came last week and I was SO EXCITED and totally watched it that night! Yay, now I don't have to watch it in sections!**

**Anyway, just had to add that little piece of info.**

Chapter 13

On the Other Side

Keith went home the next day as was planned. Since he was very weak from the treatments and lack of exercise, he was transported from his room to their car in a wheelchair. Keith hated wheelchairs. They gave people a reason to star at you and wonder what the hell was wrong with you. Thankfully he was wearing his regular clothes instead of a hospital gown so he didn't stand out as much but he still felt uncomfortable.

Before they left the hospital, his dad stopped at the pharmacy and received a white paper bag which he gave to Keith.

"What's in here?" he asked instantly.

"Dr. Grant prescribed a stronger antidepressant and a mild antipsychotic," Henry told him. "Just as a precaution."

"He shouldn't have bothered," said Keith. "Those things don't work anyway. But I'll take them if it'll give you some piece of mind."

"Thanks, Keith."

When they got home, Keith automatically walked into his room and fell asleep immediately. He didn't wake up until dinnertime where he found that his dad had made chicken noodle soup.

"Ha ha, I get it," said Keith as he sat down. "You made this 'cause I'm sick right?"

"Well, I was going to make my famous homemade pizza, but I figured you wouldn't be able to handle it," his dad replied.

"But that's my favorite!"

"I know, but this is just a precaution. Besides, it still is homemade."

Keith sighed exasperatedly as he began to eat. His dad's homemade pizza would've really cheered him up after the events of the past two weeks but he knew he had a point and Keith really didn't like the thought of puking up fried cheese for an entire night. And, the soup was actually pretty good anyway.

Halfway through the meal, his dad said. "Mr. Miles was kind enough to send all of your homework from both his and your other classes. I figured maybe you could start some of it to…get your mind off of everything."

"That's a good idea," Keith agreed. "But the truth is, I'm cool with it all."

"You're---you're okay with the fact that you're…dying?"

"Well, no that part sucks but I've had cancer for a long time so I really only had a fifty/fifty chance to begin with."

He looked at his dad's face and saw that he was looking at him with a look of complete shock at his nonchalant reaction to his situation. Keith reached across the table and laid a hand on his dad's arm. "Don't worry, Dad. I'm not trying to convince myself that I'm not dying or anything 'cause I know I am. But I'm not gonna waste what time I have left, worrying about it, okay?"

To his relief, his dad flashed him a weak smile and laid his hand on top of Keith's. "Okay, Keith, I trust you. But you let me know if you need to talk about anything."

"Sure thing, Dad and thanks." Keith smiled as he stood up and took his dishes into the kitchen and put them in the sink. "But if it makes you feel better," he called over his shoulder. "I'll take my meds tonight."

* * *

To Keith's surprise, the homework did help, mainly because it gave him something to do and become distracted with thoughts of his death. But he told himself that he would not think about since he already had during his all night cry and he vowed that he would never do that again or feel bad for himself. Everyone died eventually; he was just ahead of everyone else.

When he wasn't working on homework, Keith thought about Natalie and his newly evolved plan. He decided that the best thing to do was to not give her a straight answer when she asked where he had been the past two weeks and keep her guessing and wondering about what was wrong with him. He knew it was a mean thing to do, but as he had known from the beginning, Natalie Anderson needed a reality check.

* * *

Now it was Sunday evening and here he was sitting on the cliff, looking across the lake at the bright bonfire, the only source of light around. He was still going to go through with his plan of keeping Natalie guessing but she must've figured out at least part of the puzzle with the antidepressants. But taking antidepressants meant a lot of things, mainly that one was depressed which he sure as hell wasn't. He wasn't sad. He wasn't angry. He was...

Lonely.

He was alone, literary and figuratively. The only other person who could empathize with him was dead. No one else knew what it was like to have cancer. All of the treatments and pain and feeling sick all the time. And especially now, no one knew what it was like. To _know_ that they were dying. That every minute, every _second_, death was drawing nearer and nearer.

He had no one. His mom was dead. Billy was dead. Al was just, Al who tried to help him but he really could never grasp what his life was like and besides he was just doing his job. His dad was although a great help most of the time but Keith could see that he was beginning to crack with prospect that he would lose his entire family to an invisible murderer.

Keith stared at the dancing teenagers across the lake and rested his chin on his knees. They looked so happy and carefree and so full of…life. He could never be one of them. He never had been. He had always been the weirdo, the oddball.

The loner.

And he was even more a loner because of his situation. He could never be carefree and full of life because he was dying. His life was already halfway over.

Maybe he needed those antidepressants more than he thought.

Keith hugged himself and buried his face in his knees. He was on the other side of everyone. Everyone else was busy planning for the futures and college while he was busy waiting for his life to end. It was like where he was right now. The lake was the line and he could never cross that line because he wasn't allowed to. What those people at the Brick was something that had been snatched away from him and he could never get it back. It would always be like that.

He would _always_ be on the other side of everyone else.

Always.

**Author's Note: I won't blame you if you're crying by the end of this, 'cause I'll admit I even started tearing up at the end of this. The end scene is obviously supposed to be back at the prologue so it kinda mirrors the movie in the sense that it's all a flashback (which is awesome) hope it wasn't too short and please review!**


	15. Back to School

**Author's Note: A big thank you to my loyal reviewers who were so amazed that I was able to get into Keith's head so well. I hope no one thinks I'm a depressed loner because of it, because I assure you I'm not at all! I think that that is one of the beauties of being a writer: you can get deep into a person's head during a tough situation without ever have actually experienced anything like it and to the best of your abilities, be able to discribe it. **

**Anyway, thank you for the kind reviews, they really made my day. I hope this next chapter isn't too short but please review!**

Chapter 14

Back to School

Keith took the prescribed amount of pills that night. After all of his revelations at the lake, he needed something to get him back to normal. But despite the pills, he began to cry again like he had in the hospital. Although he had vowed that he wouldn't do that again. He couldn't help it. The tears just came and he let them come. He buried his face in his pillow like he had before as he sobbed for his miserable life where he felt so utterly alone.

Until that is, he felt a hand on his back. He rolled over instantly at the touch as Henry switched on his bedside lamp and took in the sight of his son's tear streaked face.

"Oh, Keith," he sighed. "Keith, c'mere." And like he had done when Keith was little and had bad dreams, Henry lifted him into his lap (or as best as he could since Keith had grown quite a bit since then) and cradled him against his chest while Keith continued to sob.

"I—I told myself that I wouldn't do this," Keith choked after a few minutes. "Bu—But I c-can't help it."

"It's okay, Keith, it's okay," Henry soothed. "It's okay to cry."

Keith sniffed in reply and wiped at his eyes as Henry continued to hold him, rubbing his back occasionally.

"Dad?" Keith murmured after a brief silence.

"Hmm?"

"I—I wish Mom was here."

"So do I, Keith. So do I."

They sat in silence for a long time after that and eventually, Keith drifted off to sleep in his father's arms and dreamed of nothing at all.

* * *

He was a few minutes late to Chemistry the next day because he was practicing in the bathroom how he would walk into the room without making Natalie suspicious. He also loved surprise entrances.

With his usual boyish grin plastered across his face, he opened the door and stepped into the classroom where he found everyone hunched over their lab stations, taking a quiz.

"Oh, a quiz, sweet!" he said sarcastically. "What timing!"

He ignored the snickers of his fellow classmates as he turned to Walt. "Morning, Walt," he said in greeting. "Thank you." He added as Walt handed him his quiz. Then, he sauntered over to his seat next to Natalie, sat down and without even looking at her, began the quiz.

At his locker after class, Keith could sense that someone was standing next to him and having a pretty good idea who that someone was he said cheerfully. "Hey, partner. Thanks for those notes I killed that quiz."

"Where have you been the last two weeks?"

"Last two weeks?" he repeated. "What, do you come here every day?"

"There's something wrong with you, isn't there."

"Yeah, yeah there is," he admitted as he zipped up his backpack and stood up. "With me, definitely with you, with this sexy little freshman right here…" he watched the pretty girl as she walked past.

"I don't wanna be funny anymore, Keith," she said seriously, pulling him back to face her.

"Oh, well, I hate to break it to you, Anderson but you've never really been funny to begin with," he told her seriously.

"What are you…depressed or something?" she asked in a low voice.

"Depressed? Yeah, I throw it out there. Chicks find it incredibly sexy," he said nonchalantly.

"I'm being serious!"

"Why? It _never_ works."

She held out his bottle of pills to him, the ones he had left in his jacket pocket. "You could've told me," she said softly.

Keith smirked. "Told you what?"

"That---that you have problems."

He snatched his jacket and the bottle out of her hands and pocketed it. "Heh! You don't know the half of it!"

"Hey, Raff," said Natalie suddenly.

Keith looked to his left and saw Natalie's pretty boyfriend staring from her to him and back again. "What's going on here?"

"What?" Natalie asked.

"With the jacket."

"Oh, you like it?" asked Keith brightly. "I got it from K Mart."

"Raff, I was cold, he lent it to me," said Natalie.

"Oh, come on," said Keith, rolling his eyes. "You don't expect him to believe that do you? You see, Raff," he said to the other boy, "we're part of this jacket smuggling ring and if you're quiet enough I swear there's a fleece in it for you somewhere."

"Look, I'm not talkin' to you, okay?" Raff snapped.

"Hey, man, don't get mad at me. I only supply the shit, I don't create the demand," said Keith in mock defensiveness.

"Shut the hell up!" Raff demanded, shoving his face close to his threateningly.

"Raff! Raff, it's just a jacket!" Natalie cried, moving between them. Raff glared at Keith before saying to Natalie, "This is bullshit." And he turned and marched off. Natalie watched him leave before she whirled around to look at Keith and gave him a look that said, _This is all _your_ fault!_ Before she hurried after her boyfriend.

Keith bit his lip as she ran away. He hadn't meant for Raff to get so upset at his joke but maybe for once, his games had gone too far.

"Marques, it was a joke!" he called out as a way of apology although he knew that Raff was far away by now.

* * *

With the unexpected exit of both Raff and Natalie, all Keith wanted to do was get home and think about everything. So he didn't even look for as he walked quickly toward the parking lot.

Until…

"So, this is all just a big joke to you, huh?" Natalie yelled angrily from behind him.

"I don't know," Keith mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore."

"Why did you choose me to be your lab partner?"

Keith snickered. "Me?"

"Don't bullshit me! Miles told me!"

"Walter Miles is CIA, you can't trust him," Keith said without slowing down or looking back at her.

"Where do you live?" she demanded, grabbed his arm and pulling him around to face him.

"What?!" he cried, all joking gone.

"Where do you live? You lied about it!" She accused.

"Are you losin' it, partner?"

"You lied about _everything_!"

" 'Cause I've got some great pills that you could take," Keith continued as if she had never interrupted him. "But I'm sure you already knew that." He finished softly. Then, while she stared wide eyed at him, he pivoted around and stormed away without looking back.

**Author's Note: Those two confrontations scenes are probably my two favorite in the movie as well as the airport scene. Please review!**


	16. Not Part of the Plan

**Author's Note: Wow, I haven't updated this in so long!! But I have a reason for that (as . knows) I was busy finishing up another fanfiction and was too "in the mode" with that one than I was for this one. But now that that one is finished, I can devote my full attention to finishing Always on the Other Side.**

**I'm sorry to say but I think this may be the second to last chapter because the rest of the movie is basically Natalie figuring out what's wrong with him, but I made this chapter really long to make for my tardiness in updating. It contains the 'sex scene' which I want to assure everyone that it is NOT A LEMON! I tried to make it as sweet as I could so I hope you enjoy and please review!**

Chapter 15

Not Part of the Plan

It was a good thing that his dad wasn't home when Keith got home. He was so angry that when he slammed the front door closed his mother's picture tottered, threatening to fall. Keith steadied it before it could and gazed at her smiling face longingly for a moment before he stomped into his room. There, he threw his backpack onto the floor and sat heavily down on his bed.

In all honesty, he didn't know why he was so upset. He supposed that it was because he was still dealing with the fact that he was dying, as much as he assured himself that he was handling it. Plus, it was his first day back and he hadn't really wanted to deal all of her questions anyway. What would he say to her if he wanted to tell her the truth? Hey, partner, guess what? I've got cancer and I've only got a month to live. No way! She would start acting weird around him, stare at him as if he would drop dead at any moment. He couldn't let that happen and he wouldn't. He knew he would have to tell her eventually, but now wasn't the time.

With that, he reached under his bed and pulled out his old and battered guitar that he kept there. He only knew how to play a few songs and he mostly made up his own or just plucked absentmindedly at the strings. Playing guitar, like driving his truck was another way of helping him relax and think about things. He strummed the strings once, letting the feel of them flow back into his fingertips. It had been a long time since he had played, he realized suddenly and after he adjusted a few of the tuning pegs, he began to play.

He was still playing when he heard the front door open and close, announcing the arrival of his dad. Keith didn't make a move to get up. He didn't want to talk to his dad right now or anyone else for that matter.

But apparently, Henry had other plans.

"Keith!" he called. Keith ignored him and even increased the volume of his playing as a signal that he didn't want to be disturbed.

"Keith!" Henry called again, louder this time.

Still Keith ignored him, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.

There was a pause and then he heard soft knocking on his door which Henry opened and poked his head into the room and Keith abruptly stopped playing.

"Keith, there's a girl here…Natalie," he told him.

"I can't, I'm, um, busy," Keith replied without looking up at him.

"But, Keith, she's waiting…"

"I don't want to see her right now, okay?!" Keith snapped loudly.

Henry blinked in surprise and nodded slowly. "Okay, Keith, okay." And his head disappeared as he shut the door softly behind him.

Keith continued to play but he also listened intently for when he was sure that Natalie had left. When he felt that enough time had passed, he placed his guitar back under his bed, got up and quickly left the house without even looking to see where his dad had gone.

Once outside, he walked purposefully to his truck but stopped when he saw that hanging from his rearview mirror was a pair furry white dice. He glared at the dice as he opened his door and automatically picked up the box that still had the bright wrapping paper attached to it. Flinging the box onto the floor, he started his truck and pulled out of his driveway.

He didn't care where he was going. He just drove and drove and drove. He probably could've gone all the way to Wisconsin and not even realized it until he got there. His thoughts were far away. He thought about everything from his diagnosis to his recent stay in the hospital. But he mostly thought of Natalie. It must've taken her a lot of guts to come over to his house to talk to him. He had to give her credit for that, since no one his age had _ever_ been to his house before. He knew she was desperate to know what was wrong with him, it was obvious from her various confrontations earlier that day. But it just wasn't the right moment to tell her yet. He would tell her eventually, but not now.

He toyed then with the idea of going over to her house and at least apologizing for turning her down but he knew that would only lead to more questions, so he continued to drive.

* * *

It was after dark when he made it to the lake. Keith knew that he would end up here eventually and as he walked toward the cliff, he felt calmer. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he stopped at the edge and gazed longingly out at the two bonfires that looked like nothing more than candle flames from where he stood.

He heard movement behind him and then he heard shoes crunching on the ground. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was and so he continued to stare out at the lake as she said, "I don't—I don't care where you're gonna be next year. I don't care if you're crazy. God, I—I just know I wanna be with you."

Keith glanced at her then but didn't turn his head to fully look at her. Was she saying that she…_loved_ him? Him who seemed to annoy her constantly. Him, who could be such a jerk to her. Him, who was the freak of the school.

And she, the most popular and ambitious girl he had ever met and who had no business even glancing at him, had managed to fall in love with him.

And maybe…just maybe, deep down he inside of him, beneath all of his misery and hatred of his life, he had managed to fall in love with her too.

"I don't understand what you're doing," she continued and her voice shook a little. "It all seems pointless, I mean everything….it just seems pointless! But when I'm with you, it's different." He could hear in her voice how hard she was trying not to cry and as he pressed his lips together, he thought, _Please don't cry because of me. Please_.

"I don't know why," she finished softly.

She cried then. Softly, but it was crying nonetheless and Keith realized that even though his plan had good intentions for her and that she was obviously frustrated with him, he had never wanted to make her cry…over anything, especially him.

With that, he turned and in two steps he was in front of her. He had only meant to hug her, hold her, comfort her and somehow show her that hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do. But when he moved to put his arms around her, she grabbed his face and kissed him…hard. It was much more passionate than when he had kissed before. With this kiss there was more love and longing and Keith wanted more.

So he kissed her back feverously and cupped her face with one hand and stroked her with the other. He didn't even notice that they were simultaneously moving towards his truck until his leg hit a corner of it and then he pulled away from her.

"You sure you wanna go _that_ far, partner?" he asked with a smirk. " 'Cause, I mean, you're technically cheating on your boyfriend here."

"Yeah, I guess I am cheating on him," she agreed with a shrug. "But, honestly he hasn't felt like my boyfriend for awhile. Because I—I just can't stop thinking about you. Those two weeks when you were gone, I—I didn't know what do with myself and I was…worried about you."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "_You_ were worried about…_me_?"

"Sure, we're partners, aren't we?"

"Of course we are," he assured her, drawing her into a hug.

"And as far as _doing it_, well, I just wanna be with you, Keith."

He pulled out of the embrace and stroked her cheek. "Okay, partner." Then, he turned and unhooked the back of his truck so that they could get up into the bed of it. He allowed Natalie to climb up first while he kicked off his shoes and climbed in after her. She was sitting towards the back window and when he joined her, they resumed their heated kissing.

As the kissing progressed to touching, Keith's rational mind left him and his body took over as he explored the beautiful girl who had become so much more to him than just a lab partner. His fingers skimmed over her arms and chest while he distracted her by kissing her lips, eyes and nose. He only paused to help her take off his shirt and then he nearly gasped in surprise when her slender fingers caressed his bare chest.

_I can't believe this is happening to me,_ he thought as they continued to shed more of their clothes. _This wasn't part of the plan. This wasn't so supposed to happen! I'm not supposed to love her and she's not supposed to love me! _The rational part of his mind screamed at him.

But Keith didn't care.

He didn't know how much time past only that it was the most unbelievable night of his life. When it was over and Natalie was dozing in his arms, he replayed the euphoric moments again and again, knowing that he could never experience it again.

He ran his fingers through her hair and gave a heavy sigh of contentment. This woke Natalie up and even in the moonlight he could see her smiling up at him.

"Keith, that was…wonderful," she breathed.

"Yeah, it was," he agreed. "But I think we should get going."

"Yeah, I suppose," she sighed. "I just don't want this night to end. I wish we could just stay like this forever."

Keith said nothing but tightened his grip on her and thought. _Me too, partner, me too._

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Keith pulled up in front of her house while she stroked his hair. They had spent the drive in complete silence. Keith knew he had to stop whatever it was that had obviously come between them. He couldn't start a real relationship with her, especially now when time was precious to him. It would just be all the more harder for her to let him go when the time came and he didn't want to cause her any more pain than he had to. But he knew thinking that was useless because in order to let her go, he _had_ to hurt her…badly.

And when he pulled up to her house, he knew exactly what he was going to say.

"So, we should actually go bowling," Natalie said when he stopped. "You know, like with pins and lanes."

"We should," Keith agreed.

"Maybe tomorrow?"

"Maybe."

"Are you even gonna be in school tomorrow?"

"I don't know," said Keith. "I don't know about any of this, actually."

"What?" Natalie asked with a smile and Keith couldn't help but notice what a beautiful smile it was.

"I mean, a guy like with a truck, gotta keep movin'," he answered.

She snorted. "Stop it."

"I mean, you know, I'm not one for that whole attachment thing anyway," he said in an offhand way.

"Shut up."

"You've got Raff," he reminded her. "Raff's a good guy, he's good for you." Then he looked ahead of him so he wouldn't have to see her face when he unleashed his final blow. "We should probably just forget about it," he finished softly.

She said nothing as he knew she wouldn't but he continued to stare impassively ahead as if he didn't care about her feelings.

"Fuck you," she finally managed to snap.

"You just did, partner," he replied with a slight smirk. And he kept that smirk plastered on his face as she stared at him in complete shock at his words. Her mouth as she struggled to find a comeback and when she realized she had nothing, she scowled at him before she opened the door, got out and slammed it shut behind her. Keith watched her storm up to her house and he could see her shoulders shaking slightly and then he looked away.

* * *

Keith's hands were shaking when he finally reached his house. When he had put into park and turned it off, he immediately collapsed against the steering wheel. He knew she would hate him for what he had said and he wouldn't be surprised if she never forgave him since he did deserve it. But it was for the best and she would thank him in the end.

Then why did he feel so horrible about it?

Because he knew, like he had thought at the lake, that he would never want to hurt her and that he loved her. Yes, he _loved_ her. He loved her so much that he thought briefly of driving back to her house, taking her in his arms and telling her everything.

But he couldn't. And that was what hurt him more than anything else.

**Author's Note: Hope that was fluffy enough and please review!**


	17. The Goodbye Scene

**Author's Note: Well, here is the chapter that everyone (including me) has been dreading: the last chapter. Even though it's the last chapter, it (as I've mentioned before) contains one of my absolute favorite scenes in the entire movie: the goodbye/airport scene. Jesse and Elisabeth's action in that scene is absolutely brilliant and Jesse's acting/expressions nearly had me on the verge of tears. I sincerely hope I did the scene justice with my interpretation of Keith's thoughts. So, enjoy the chapter as much as you can and please review!**

Chapter 16

The Goodbye Scene

Keith didn't see Natalie again until Chemistry on Monday. Well this wasn't entirely true. She had stopped by his house again, late Sunday afternoon but he hadn't answered her knocking.

His dad had gone into work for a few hours, leaving Keith home alone. Still feeling pretty bad about what he had said to Natalie the night before, he sat in his living room and hooked up his electric guitar to an amplifier and began to play as a way to just escape for awhile.

Apparently it wasn't loud enough as he heard Natalie knocking at the front door twenty minutes later.

"Keith," she called.

He stopped playing and then waited for a few minutes, wondering if maybe she would get the hint and leave him alone.

She didn't because the knocking started again and he immediately resumed his playing. He didn't want to talk to her. Why would she want to talk to him after all that he had said? Over his playing he could sense that she was yelling at him to come out and talk to him but he just ignored her. He would see her on Monday anyway.

And such was the case the next day in Chemistry although they did very little talking, in fact Natalie didn't even look up at him when he arrived a few minutes late yet again.

Since finals week was just around the corner, they were cleaning their lab station equipment and turning in their final reports. Walter called out instructions as they worked. Natalie had already cleaned all of their equipment and was filling out the paper that said that all of their materials. Keith leaned back on his stool and swept his gaze over the equipment lined up in front of him.

"Four test tubes, three beakers…and a Bunsen burner," he said with finality as he pulled the final tool out of his jacket pocket. He had swiped it, hoping that she would look up, see that it was missing and at least say that she acknowledged his presence. But she acted as if she hadn't heard him and continued filling out the sheet.

He couldn't say anything to her either because at that moment, Walter arrived at their table with his clipboard. "Okay, everything looks good here." He observed. "Keys."

Keith obediently handed him his key. Natalie continued to look down at her paper.

"Natalie, key?" Walter asked.

She glanced up at him and then handed him her key.

"The end of Chemistry as we know it," Keith remarked, looking up at the ceiling.

Natalie rounded on him. "You're such a goddamn glib little actor!" she yelled. "As far as I'm concerned this is a really chicken shit goodbye!" Then she grabbed her backpack and simultaneously caused some of their equipment to fall off of the desk. "Excuse me." She murmured apologetically to Walter and ran out of the room.

When she was gone, Keith looked up at the stunned teacher and said calmly. "Don't worry. Walter, she was addressing her remarks to me." Then he looked down at his desk and pressed his lips together in thought at her abrupt exit.

* * *

He didn't even see her in the parking lot after school. This was strange as she was usually one of the last people to leave. He wondered what could've possibly caused her to avoid him so much but deep down, he knew that he knew the truth.

She had found out his secret.

Or she had just figured it out by process of deduction. He knew she would eventually but he had hoped that he could've told her himself.

Now that she knew there was the question of what was he going to do about? He figured that she probably wanted an explanation as to why he had kept it a secret from her and he felt that she deserved at least that much after all that he had done to her.

Fifteen minutes later, he was ringing the doorbell at her house. Like he had done on his last visit, he shifted nervously from one foot to the other and wondered what he would say to her if she answered. Fortunately he was spared from thinking up anything at all because it was her brother who answered just like the last time.

"Oh, hi," he said. "You're the guy with the truck, right?"

"Yeah," said Keith. "Is Natalie home? We're supposed to go bowling."

"Yeah, hang on a sec---"

"Just tell her to come outside, I'll be by my truck," said Keith quickly.

"Okay, sure thing."

He shut the door then and Keith walked back to his truck and leaned against the door to wait.

She came out ten minutes later. As she came closer, Keith tried to determine the expression on her face. It wasn't easy as her face seemed to be mix: there was confusion, curiosity, sadness and a trace of anger. She looked him straight in the eye as she passed him as if to say:_ I_ _know what's wrong with you. I know you're dying_, before she walked around the front of his truck and got in. Keith stayed where he was, considering her mixed feelings before he himself got in and drove off.

There was a tense silence between them while Keith drove, to where he didn't know exactly. He didn't really feel like bowling, but he didn't really feel like sitting around talking about his situation either. He thought about asking her where she wanted to go when she asked suddenly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Everybody bites it sooner or later," said Keith nonchalantly. "I'm just in the AP class, ahead of the game."

"Always the joke," she said stiffly.

"Al says it's a phase, it'll stop soon," he assured her cheerfully. "But, hey! At least it wasn't all about sympathy for the sick kid."

"That's not fair."

He instantly slammed on the brakes. He stopped so fast that his tires squealed in protest but he barely noticed as he focused on his oh so ignorant companion. "Is Duke fair?" he questioned her angrily. "Is _Europe_ fair? At this rate, I won't even make it to London, Ontario, is _that_ fair?!"_ Do you honestly that I wasn't being fair with you because I didn't tell you I had cancer right from the beginning? How the hell is getting cancer fair in the first place?!_ He screamed at her in his head. To Natalie he said more softly. "Bowling. That's what I get. _Bowling_." And then he looked ahead of him and continued to drive.

A tense silence descended upon them again until Natalie said. "We're not going bowling."

"Why?"

"We're saving that. Turn left."

They ended up at the thrift store where they had bought the bowling balls. Except this time, Natalie did the buying and she bought an old green leather suitcase. Then she directed him to a small airport outside of town. But it was still early evening by the time they got there and Natalie led the way as they walked inside and didn't stop until they reached the security station. Then, she told him to wait there for her and walked briskly away, carrying the suitcase.

So Keith was forced to stand in the middle of an airport he had never been to in his life without luggage or even a ticket. He was glad that no one seemed to notice him as they hurried to get to their gates or go through security as he looked rather lost and confused…which he was.

Thankfully, Natalie returned five minutes later and when she reached with a small smile on her face. After she had handed him the green suitcase, Keith asked. "What are we doing here?"

"The sky's the limit," she replied brightly, handing him a slip of paper. "I haven't lied to you this far and I'm not gonna start now."

_Smooth of you to throw my own words back at me_, Keith thought as he took the paper and looked at it.

It was a makeshift airline ticket and it read:

Yellow Truck Airlines

Name of Passenger: KEITH

From: HERE

To: ANYWHERE

Utterly confused, Keith looked up at her and asked again. "What are we doing here? Really?"

"This is the goodbye scene," said Natalie.

"Let's not," said Keith quickly. "Okay."

"C'mon, Zetterstrom," she coaxed. "You can do it."

"Okay," said Keith and to himself he thought _If you really wanna hear it partner, I'll give it to you_. "Wake up, Natalie!" he said firmly. "Don't you see what happened here? You had a beautiful life and I had shit. I _hated_ your guts. I wanted to take you down, I wanted to make you as miserable as I am and that is _exactly_ what I did!" he practically yelled at her, ignoring the fact that they were in the middle of an airport. "Now," he finished in his normal tone, "how's that for a goodbye."

She blinked as if she was trying not to cry but managed to say in a light tone. "Pretty lame."

"Face it, Anderson, I screwed you! I screwed you big time." He finished in a slight whisper.

Again she blinked furiously but shrugged nonchalantly. "So you screwed me? So what? Me," and here she stepped forward, grabbed his face and whispered into his ear. "I made love to you."

Keith stood there, not believing what she was saying. Was she really saying that she didn't care that he had screwed up everything that she had worked so hard for? Was she saying that it was all worth it because she loved him?

Apparently, she was but he couldn't let her.

"Try again," she whispered. "Try_ again_!" but still he pulled away from her and turned his back on her.

This was getting more difficult than it had to be and all because they had fallen love with each other. Keith knew he had to stop it now and he had to hurt so badly that she would hate him and stop loving him and forget all about him before he succumbed to his disease. He couldn't love like she wanted him to, like _he_ wanted to love her because it would all be over anyway and she would have nothing but a messed up life that he had created. But she had said that she didn't care that he had screwed up her life so badly, she just wanted to be with him. Well, since she had confessed so much to him already, the least he could do was confess a few things to her as well before things went too far.

He turned around then and walked up to her so that her face was just a few inches from his.

"I had it all figured out so I cut out early, who cares? It's probably a good thing. Life _sucks_, anyway. But then I met you and it got…weird and you were so…_amazing_," he ended in a sigh. "And I---" He stopped. He couldn't say what he was going to say, he just couldn't. It would be like he was going against everything that he had said in the beginning, he would be telling his deepest of secrets. It was something that he could never have, especially now that she was a part of his life and that made it all the more worse. He could feel his mouth moving uselessly as he struggled whether to tell what he really wanted to or not.

"What?" Natalie asked after a few seconds. "_What_?"

"I just wanted a little more time," he confessed. _With you_, he thought in his head. "So, all in all, I'd say you're the worst thing that's ever happened to me." His voice caught at the end and he nearly cried himself when he saw her face turn to one of stunned surprise and disbelief at his crushing words. He had to put an end to all of this pain so he said quickly. "Goodbye, partner." And then he promptly turned on his heel and began walking towards the security checkpoint to make it look as if he really was leaving her and to make seem more natural to the people around them.

He was wondering what he was going to do and say when he got up to the front when Natalie grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face her. "I'm staying with you until you leave," she told him fiercely. "I don't care how much time we have!" Then she pulled his head closer to hers so that they were nearly nose to nose. "You get that, you stupid jerk!" she cried in a whisper.

And she kissed him. It was a different kiss than the last one. This one seemed to be a stamp of finality of the promise that she had just made. It was passionate but still full of love and how much she needed him and wanted him.

At first, Keith stood there and didn't kiss her back. He felt that he didn't deserve to kiss her back after all that he had said and all that he had done to her. He was just going to let her kiss him until she realized that he really didn't love her like she loved him and was going to leave him to his misery.

But that would be a lie, a lie he couldn't ignore.

He faintly heard the suitcase hit the floor with a thud as he dropped it so he could wrap his arms around her and draw her closer to him. His kiss equaled hers in intensity and he felt the world melt around them. He didn't care that he was standing in the middle of an airport where people were watching them. He didn't care that what they were doing was like something out of a movie. He didn't care what the next day would bring or the next or the next.

He didn't even care that he was dying of cancer.

All Keith cared about was the girl that he held in his arms, the girl that he loved with all his heart and would love until his dying breath. The girl who had suffered so much because of him and who in the end, loved him more than he thought she could.

It was Natalie Anderson that Keith cared about the most now; in this moment that he wished could just freeze and last forever. What he also realized in those moments that were even more wonderful than kissing her was that he wasn't going to be alone anymore and that he had managed to cross to the other side where Natalie was. Where there was love and hope…and most important of all, _life_.

**Author's Note: That's the end! Ah, I can't believe it! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially to accioradan89 who had such great enthusiasm for this story right from the beginning. I'm glad that so many people enjoyed this story and applauded how well I was able to get into Keith's head (I was very surprised myself as this story progressed) and I am very satisfied with the end result. I hope you all are too and I want to assure everyone that I have many more Keith stories in my head both oneshots and multi chaptered fics. So once again, thank you for reading my first fic for this brand new category and please review!**

**Happy Writing! And remember…the sky's the limit. **


End file.
